Floating house prototypes designed to cope with sea level rise

If sea levels rise due to global climate change as predicted, home builders could turn to a new concept for coastal housing: the floating house.

Recent floating home prototypes have emerged in the U.K., Spain, and Nigeria. In recent weeks, a floating house has been towed through the waters of the Thames estuary in England by a tugboat. The wood structure is buoyed by three steel pontoons, and is an attempt to create a floating home that can have all of the features of a standard land-based house.