For all those who wondered what would it feel like to live in a floating house that they could sail away in, we have some amazing news! Airbnb is offering the chance of staying at a floating house for a night. The floating house shall be floating along the River Thames in London, UK.
Floating House at Number 1, The Thames, is being offered for a one night stay as part of a promotional contest and while the marketing strategy is brilliant, the real feat is the construction of this house. The Floating House sports two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom. It also features a garden with a dog kennel and wisteria.
It was designed by twin brothers Nick and Steve Tidball of the TBWA advertising agency. As per Airbnb, the duo was asked to create something that would allow the users to look at the city from a different perspective. The important consideration was how the house would look when standing alone. This is where the creativity and inspiration came in and it was decided that ‘picturesque homes of Primrose Hill and Hampstead’ along with the ‘Pixar’s Up’ shall be used to impart a fairy-tale look.
It seems as if it has two floors from the exterior, however, it only has one story. It has been created using 6 steel shipping containers which were cladded in wood. It has been built upon a floating base – uni-float pontoon.
The garden and house walls extend below the waterline to cover the base upon which the house is floating. The floor is raised by almost 1.5 meters as compared to a normal house, again for the purpose of concealing the base that is underneath the structure. Some ingenious ideas have been implemented for providing the facilities that are required for guests. A generator hidden in the roof provides power while the hidden water tanks provide water for showers.
The structure was pre-fabricated off-site and then assembled on water by making use of floating pontoon and cranes. According to Port of London Authority rules, the house is not self-propelled by rather makes use of yet again hidden mechanism for being towed. The tug boat that is used for towing is kept at a distance of 30 meters to impart the feeling of independent floating home.
The project shall remain operational till Friday and as per Airbnb is the first structure that has been given permission to float on River Thames like this.
