This houseboat of the future is a US$5.5 million floating mansion designed for sea level rise
- The Arkup houseboat is the brainchild of two French expatriates based in Florida who have a passion for the oceans and environmental preservation
Why let sea rise sink your Miami lifestyle when you can go with the flow aboard the Arkup houseboat?
Arkup features the ingenious engineering feature of four hydraulic pilings that stabilise the vessel on the sea bottom or allow it to lift like a house on stilts above floodwaters, king tides and hurricane-whipped storm surges. South Florida sea levels are projected to rise 6 to 12 inches by 2030, 14 inches to nearly three feet by 2060, and 31 inches to nearly seven feet by 2100, according to the Southeast Florida Climate Change Regional Compact Sea Level Rise Work Group. Miami Beach and the Keys may be inundated first, but the entire region is recognised as one of the most vulnerable on the planet.
In this brave new waterworld, Arkup wants to keep you high and dry on your floating home.
Noah, who constructed his ark to withstand 40 days and 40 nights of apocalyptic rain and biblical flooding, would approve. He probably could not afford the modern version, which has a sticker price of US$5.5 million, but he would like the comfort, spacious bathrooms and retractable swimming platform.
Arkup, solar-powered and equipped with a rainwater-collecting-and-purifying system, is a self-sustaining home, a green adaptation for our blue future.
“It’s more like a house than a boat but you never lose the unmistakable feeling that you’re on the water,” said Nicolas Derouin, managing director of Arkup.
Arkup was designed and built in Miami by Derouin and Arnaud Luguet, two French engineers who live here and have a passion for the oceans and environmental preservation.
They have witnessed the impact of climate change and sea level rise in their adopted hometown and around the world. On Monday, Indonesia announced it will move its capital out of Jakarta, a swampy, flood-prone and drowning metropolis of 30 million people.
“It is happening before our eyes,” Derouin said. “Coastal areas are the most desirable but also the most at risk. Miami is implementing resiliency measures. We hope Arkup can be a small part of the solution.”
Derouin and Luguet were inspired by the Dutch floating communities of IJburg and Schoonschip.
“In the Netherlands, one third of the country is below sea level,” Derouin said. “They want to develop housing alternatives. Instead of fighting the water, live on it.”
Lake Union in Seattle has 500 permanently docked houseboats. Paris has restaurants, a hotel and is building a 2024 Olympic venue on the River Seine. Dubai has floating vacation homes. In San Francisco, where Sausalito has a houseboat community, the Danish firm BIG has proposed building an archipelago of floating villages connected by ferries on the bay. The Lincoln Harbor Yacht Club in Weehawken, N.J., which was devastated by Superstorm Sandy, may reinvent its marina as a houseboat haven.
“We decided to design a boat that looks and feels like Miami, is compatible with a subtropical climate and gives the owner the freedom and flexibility to move,” Derouin said.
Their ultimate goal is to create an affordable model, develop floating neighbourhoods and partner with island hotels to build eco-bungalows on surrounding waters.
“We want to design small apartments on the water for students, townhouses for families,” Derouin said. “We want to create housing solutions for a broader audience. That’s the vision behind Arkup.”
Arkup’s eco-friendly luxury yacht, the mansion on water is a marvel whether you choose to tie up at a dock, cruise around the ocean or live above the water.”
