By Jessica Cumberbatch Anderson, Source: Huffington Post

When UK design firm Baca Architects submitted their plans for a floating home on a small island in the River Thames, the response they got was, understandably, confusion.

“The local planning authority and the Environment Agency had never seen or heard of an amphibious house before,” Ruth Deans, who handles press inquiries for Baca, told The Huffington Post. “We had to work particularly hard to convince them that it would work here, which involved a lot of reports and detailed documentation.”

By some estimates, however, Baca’s concept for a house that would rise up off of its foundation and float in the event of a flood, wasn’t really that far-fetched. “Thanks to climate change, some of the world’s rainiest places are likely to get rainier — and more likely to flood,” writes Fast Company’s Adele Peters. Case in point: The town of Marlow, a flood zone, where Baca’s “Formosa” home is being built.

As Peters explains, “the three-story house, made from lightweight timber, sits on a floating concrete hull. When the river floods, the house is designed to rise up in its dock, held in place by guideposts at each side.”

Check out a video of how the home works below.

See more at: Huffington Post