Water Always Wins

She and her students at the Buoyant Foundation Project took that basic idea and tweaked it to make it workable in various cultures and ecosystems. For places like the United States and Canada, they suggest using plastic water barrels, foam buoyancy blocks, or manufactured dock floats. They put the floaters inside a structural subframe under the house. The subframe and home are affixed to vertical guideposts sunk into the ground, allowing the house to rise and fall without floating away from its foundation. The homes may be designed with coiled “umbilical lines” for water supply and electricity, and breakaway connections for gas and sewer lines. The cost of a buoyancy system is around $ 15–$ 40 per square foot. There are no mechanical parts. The water does the work, lifting the house.