By Karen Stephenson

Coastal communities around the world have been plagued with flooding for centuries. In recent years, the United Kingdom was plagued with their worst flooding in sixty years that left 30,000 people homeless. Torrential rains, in countries such as Bangladesh and India, have caused insurmountable damage to communities, loss of valuable human life, and have displaced millions of people. And in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina brought the reality of catastrophic flooding to North American shores in 2005. With the fear of apocalyptic flooding and sea levels rising around many coastal communities, the Netherlands have proven an old saying to be true, if you can't beat it, join it. Dutch technology has built a flood-resistant neighborhood that rises when water rises, serving as a model for communities around the world.

Low-lying areas around the world are dangerously susceptible to being devastated by flooding. In Holland, flooding has been a fact of life because half of the country sits below sea level. Dura Vermeer, a construction and engineering company knows you can't always beat Mother Nature, so why not join her? By building communities that float, we can mitigate damage caused by flood waters.

Dura Vermeer has developed two styles of housing: the floating house that sits permanently on the water, much like a moored boat, and the amphibious house that sits on dry land, and rises should water levels rise. These houses have so much flexibility that they can deal with a sea level that rises up to five meters.

Both styles of housing have a light upper structure and a large heavy hollow concrete cube at the base to create buoyancy. Two sets of mooring poles, in front and back, keep the house anchored in one place, allowing it to raise and lower in a straight vertical way. The poles also enable the house to withstand currents that are as strong as those found on the open seas, allowing people living in these homes to function normally without the horizontal side-to-side movement. Water and electricity are transported through flexible piping that has been specially designed to bend and shift with water movements. These innovative designs not only offer protection from floods, they provide great quality of living, with low impact to the environment.

Amphibious housing is the way of the future for countless coastal communities thanks to Koen Olthuis, of Waterstudio in the Netherlands; one of a few people who have designed astounding water dwellings worldwide. Olthuis has now designed a development called "New Water", which features what will soon be the world's first floating apartment complex called "The Citadel". The Citadel will use 25% less energy than conventional "land-based" buildings due to innovative water cooling techniques. Olthuis is a proponent of societies learning to live with water, instead of stopping something that is naturally meant to be. The New Water and the Citadel are projects that embrace water and will be composed on wetlands.

The New Water project will be built on a polder, a recessed area situated below sea level where flood waters gather after heavy rainfalls. Almost 3,500 polders currently exist in Holland, and are continually pumped to keep excess water from destroying homes and buildings. New Water will purposely allow the polder to flood as the buildings are designed to float on top of rising water.

The Citadel is an ambitious project, housing sixty luxury apartments, a car park, a floating road for access to the mainland and boat docks. This housing complex will have a density of 30 units per acre of water leaving open water around the structure. Individual units will have a garden terrace and a view of the lake.

There is worldwide attention placed on the energy efficiency in the Citadel. Aesthetically-pleasing greenhouses are strategically placed around the apartment complex, with water being pumped through the underwater pipes, acting as a cooling source. Aluminum, known for its long life span and easy maintenance, is being used for the facade since corrosion and maintenance are important factors around water. Individual units of this sophisticated complex are prefabricated modules.

Scientists have predicted rising sea-levels, and with catastrophic storms becoming more frequent, floating homes might just be the only realistic way for people to live in low-lying areas without fear of losing everything they own. As former Dutch Housing Minister Sybilla Dekker once stated, "You cannot fight water. You have to learn how to live with it."