The Challenges of Designing a Reusable, Floating Wooden Building
Everyone who has ever built anything—a model, a birdhouse, or small pieces of furniture—has a clear sense of the amount of things that can go wrong during the construction process. A screw that is impossible to tighten fully, a warped wooden board, an inattention or a miscalculation that can frustrate plans instantly. When we transport these small inconveniences to a building scale, with countless processes and many different people involved, we know how complex a work can become and how many things can get out of control, taking more and more time and requiring more and more resources to finish. And when we talk about a building that needs to float, be completely self-sufficient, and, after fulfilling its useful life, be completely reused—could you imagine the technical challenges of building something like this?
![The Challenges of Designing a Reusable, Floating Wooden Building](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/6030/2508/f91c/81fd/ce00/02b1/medium_jpg/17_-_Powerhouse_Company_-_Floating_Office_Rotterdam_-_photo_by_Sebastian_van_Damme.jpg?1613767926#)
![© Sebastian van Damme © Sebastian van Damme](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/6030/2508/f91c/81fd/ce00/02b1/medium_jpg/17_-_Powerhouse_Company_-_Floating_Office_Rotterdam_-_photo_by_Sebastian_van_Damme.jpg?1613767926)
Everyone who has ever built anything—a model, a birdhouse, or small pieces of furniture—has a clear sense of the amount of things that can go wrong during the construction process. A screw that is impossible to tighten fully, a warped wooden board, an inattention or a miscalculation that can frustrate plans instantly. When we transport these small inconveniences to a building scale, with countless processes and many different people involved, we know how complex a work can become and how many things can get out of control, taking more and more time and requiring more and more resources to finish. And when we talk about a building that needs to float, be completely self-sufficient, and, after fulfilling its useful life, be completely reused—could you imagine the technical challenges of building something like this?