Favorites

Storage was built in all down the hallway, making efficient use of a linear space.

<span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">"As our clients live in the space, we want them to be discovering new things,

Patricia designed the home without a pool, a fairly common feature on the island, for ecological and spatial reasons—so an understated yet oversize sunken bath is where the family cools off during heat waves. “We really tried to find an aesthetic that ‘speaks’ of the island,” says Patricia, “that expresses how natural materials can embrace beautiful spaces and how this type of design can also be considered luxurious.”

Before: A 1955 addition, denoted by the carpet, boxed in the original bay window.

In traditional Japanese architecture, spaces are divided into "tsubos," a Japanese unit of floor area that’s the equivalent to approximately 35.58 square feet.

All of the floating houses were towed to their moorings from multiple building sites over the last two years.

"For most of us, this is the first home we’ve owned and the first house we built ourselves. These are all floating homes, with specific requirements for materials. It wasn’t easy,” explains resident Wouter Valkenier.

The houses have three sets of water pipes that all run under the “smart piers.” The central clean water supply enters the house and is pumped up to the roof, where it is preheated in solar collectors. Drinking water is pumped down to an underwater heat exchanger in the channel outside. Recovered heat is used back inside the homes. The “black” water from the toilets goes directly out to the sewer, but water used in washing machines and dishwashers (“gray” water) also circulates through the heat exchanger. The shower water is upcycled—filtered, disinfected with ultraviolet light, and reused.

After renovating an Airstream—and traveling in it for nine months—Caroline Burke and her husband, Riley Haakon, came across a listing for their dream model: a 1975 Argosy trailer.