Ride out climate change and rising waters in your ARKUP floating home
Lloyd Alter
other
TreeHugger is all about sustainable design, so what’s not to love about the new ARKUP livable yacht? The designers claim that it is “environmentally friendly, powered by solar energy, no fuel, zero emission, equipped with waste management, rainwater harvesting and purification systems, [and that] our livable yachts are totally off-the-grid.” Unlike their state governor and their president, this Miami company believes that something is happening out there.
Urban growth, rising seas and energy independence are key challenges for our generation. Our solution is a unique avant-garde concept of life on the water. A combination of research in renewable energies, technological innovation and cutting edge spatial design and style situates your new home between the sea and the metropolis.
They have worked with Koen Olthius, a Dutch “water architect” to develop these 4,350-square-foot floating houses. Notwithstanding the size, they “think sustainably from conception to construction” to create “future proof blue dwellings.”
You can Live Ecologically “while being self-sufficient with water and electricity. Enjoy living off-the-grid and feel the satisfaction of minimizing your carbon footprint.”
You don’t need to worry about getting seasick either; unlike a boat it has four “spuds”, 40-foot-long hydraulic legs that that can stabilize or even lift the home right out of the water. But if the neighbours get noisy there are two 136 horsepower electric thrusters that can move you somewhere else at 7 knots.
It has so much green goodness — 30 kw of solar panels, 1,000 kWh of lithium-ion batteries and high grade insulation. There is rainwater collection and a “marine sewage device.”
They say that it is hurricane proof but that seems to be a lot of glass. No word on what the hull and superstructure are made of, but I suspect it’s not wood and straw bale.
No matter the weather conditions, hurricanes, high winds, surge and floods are no longer an issue thanks to this self-elevating system. Arkup represents a new way of living on the water, making you feel 100% safe and protected.
t’s a nice generous plan with four bedrooms that they say can sleep eight people. But come the flood and the revolution, no doubt it can be subdivided into smaller apartments for multiple families and be floated inland to where the water will be shallow enough for the pontoons to reach ground.
And it is so reassuring to know that not all the billionaires are going to New Zealand, but that some are planning to tough it out at home in America.
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