[tense music] - [Philippe] My name is Philippe Simay.

I'm a philosopher, and I'm interested in what architecture tells us about lifestyles.

I like to introduce you to the most singular homes on the planet to discover their meaning and share in their riches.

In the Netherlands, half of the country lies below sea level, and one third is covered by water, either canals, lakes or rivers.

Since the Middle Ages, the Dutch have used their inventiveness to reclaim land from the sea by building so-called "polders" on which 60% of Dutch people live.

Some feat when you find out that the Netherlands is the European nation with the densest population for its size.

But today, while space is still lacking, a new threat hangs over the country: global warming is causing the seas and major rivers to rise, endangering dikes and threatening to flood the country.

The Dutch have found a new solution: rather than hold back water, why not live on it?

Eight kilometers from the center of Amsterdam, in the new district of IJburg, composed of artificial islands, a group of floating homes has been springing up since 2013.

Having lived for seven years in downtown Amsterdam, Rico and Sietske moved to Waterbuurt, a floating neighborhood in IJburg with 90 houses and 300 inhabitants.

5 years ago, the structure of their house was delivered by boat from the Urk shipyard.

Since then, Rico has been patiently furbishing the interior.

Hello.

- [Translator 1] Hello.

- [Philippe] Can I come in?

- [Translator 1] Sure.

I'm Rico.

- [Philippe] How you doing?

Wow, you're hard at work!

- [Translator 1] Yes, we're at the finishing stage.

We had a leak, but I fixed it.

I still have some plaques to put up and to plaster.

Then I'll install the under-floor central heating, and this will be our living-room.

- [Philippe] You're doing everything by yourself?

- [Translator 1] I've always dreamed of building my own home, so yes, I'm doing everything myself.

At night, if I had a dream and came up with an idea, I'd spring out of bed, go straight to the computer and draw a plan or modify an existing plan.

I drew at least 200 plans.

It was a long process of fine-tuning.

- [Philippe] I guess it was pretty impressive seeing your home arrive by boat?

- [Translator 1] It was a huge moment, a unique experience.

The house was in a huge wooden crate which was towed by a tug-boat.

- [Philippe] These floating houses are still very much experimental.

- [Translator 1] Yes.

Even the local authorities were unsure of how to apply construction regulations.

So they just took the construction standards for a normal house and transposed them, adding "boat house".

- [Philippe] With his desire to constantly adapt his home to the constraints of water, Rico embodies the pioneer sprit of the Dutch.

- It's as if the dream of a floating home hasn't yet come true.

- [Translator 1] We had the dream, but the problems came later: just after we'd signed the contract.

In the end, we've had a lot of problems.

But we still believe in our dreams, and we keep going, because at some point, there's no turning back.

- [Philippe] Rico's wife, Sietske, shows me around the lower part of their 3-story house.

It's a lot cooler down here than upstairs.

- [Translator 2] Yes, it's nice and cool, particularly on warm evenings.

- [Philippe] Because this part's in the water?

- [Translator 2] Yes, the water comes up to here.

D'you wanna see?

- [Philippe] Oh, right, we're under the water level.

It's great to see the boats.

- [Philippe] It's quite stable now, but does the house ever move?

- [Translator 2] Yeah, it can shake quite a bit.

Today's fine, as there's no wind.

But when it's windy, and it often is in Ijburg, we bounce all over the place!

Sometimes, it can even knock is off our feet.

I love it.

When it's stormy outside, it's really exciting!

- [Philippe] All the houses are the same size and have the same external architecture: cubes with big windows and an upstairs terrace.

But each owner has the freedom to use the materials and layout of his or her choice.

Pontoon bridges lined with flowers and bicycles provide access to the homes, while the boats moored alongside evoke the nautical activities that go hand in hand with this new way of life.

It's amazing to see a pylon in the middle of the lake.

- [Translator 2] Yes.

Lots of people complain about the pylon.

Mostly about the possible waves.

But I find it kind of beautiful, it's a nice construction.

- [Philippe] Like a sculpture in the middle of the lake.

- [Translator 1] Not all the houses here are floating.

Many of them have concrete foundations, 7 by 10 meters, and between 1.8 and 2.7 meters high.

The concrete block sinks into 1.5 meters into the bed, so the foundation is as deep as possible.

It needs to be as deep as possible, because if the mass rises, the house becomes unstable.

So you must have a maximum of mass underwater, and it's the concrete block that supplies the maximum mass.

The pillars ensure the block doesn't rise vertically and doesn't shift horizontally, so it remains very stable.

There are two pillar.

One there and one here.

So when it's very windy, the house moves only up and down and not side to side.

- [Philippe] Can you swim?

- [Translator 1] There you can see how high the house is from the pillars.

Two years ago, the water rose very high around this house.

It was almost detached from its pillars and risked floating off.

- [Women] Hello.

- [Philippe] Hello!

Looks like you wanna go for a swim!

The interesting thing is it's not just a question of floating homes, but a new lifestyle: your leisure activities actually become part of your daily life.

- [Translator 2] Yes, exactly.

We're much freer to live our lives on the water.

Lots of people go for boat rides, go for a swim, go windsurfing, just to enjoy the water.

There's a new kind of combination between the home and leisure time.

I really like that, it suits me totally.

- [Philippe] Koen Olthouse is an architect and an advocate of life on the water as a solution for the future of the Netherlands.

He insisted on taking me up into the skies to discover the lie of the land and to better understand the current mindset, which is to stop constantly fighting against water and to turn it into an ally by letting it into the land and imagining new ways of living.

We've already taken off!

Is that reclaimed land or not?

- [Translator 3] We're flying over Almere.

- [Philippe] Is that reclaimed land or not?

- [Translator 3] We're flying over Almere.

One of the newest planned cities built completely on reclaimed land.

To the left, you can see IJsselmeer.

Before it was part of the sea.

So we're now flying over the biggest artificial island in the world.

It's amazing!

- [Philippe] What's really amazing is that almost all of the Netherlands is built on reclaimed land.

- [Translator 3] We Dutch have been fighting water for centuries.

Really, we started centuries ago.

And over time, half of the Netherlands has been built on reclaimed land.

A landscape of four thousand polders, which we must pump out every day to keep the land dry.

It's awesome!

What amazes me is that my parents, my grandparents and all those before them were aware that water was a problem and that they had to do something to fight against it.

Now, today's generation has forgotten that.

They think the Netherlands is dry.

But they really need to go back in time.

Firstly because it took an enormous amount of work to drain the polders and then keep them dry.

And secondly, there's a lot of work to be done for the future.

- [Philippe] Regarding the future, will you keep building polders?

- [Translator 3] Yes, because the land changes all the time.

Before, it was like a sponge that could be either soaked, either dry.

When we started farming, we preferred to have the polders dry.

And the polders on which Dutch people live to be totally dry.

We must always check the levels of water we need to pump out and how high our dikes need to be.

With climate change, the sea level is rising.

That has an important effect on our dikes and keeping back the water.

We need to pump more water out because we have heavier and heavier rains.

When you take all that into account, it means we'll never manage with our present system.

We need to take new step towards the future, perhaps with a "Polder 2.0!"

- [Philippe] Seen from the sky, you realize how the landscape has been fashioned by man.

The polders are organized according to a rational plan laid out in rectangles.

This geometrical landscape is fascinating because it testifies to the desire of Man, like King Canute, to keep back the invading waves.

What's amazing is in a single generation, the landscape can completely change.

- [Translator 3] I think the next generation will see a lot of changes, brought about by industry and urbanization, but also because we're starting to view the polders differently.

We're starting to accept the presence of water.

Our rivers are becoming wider, our canals too, and our polders are starting to retain more water.

The upcoming generation will have to think up new ways of inhabiting them.

50 years from now, the Netherlands will probably look completely different.

Maybe what it looked like fifty years ago.

- [Philippe] East of Rotterdam is the country's oldest polder: Kinderdijk.

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has existed since the 17th century with its system of 19 pumping windmills standing alongside each other.

The windmills are still inhabited and in working order, but these days, electric pumps empty the polder, by draining out water first into the surrounding canals, then into the sea.

A low-ecology system that consumes lots of energy, but without which, the region would be flooded within 48 hours.

Here, living on dry land comes at an exorbitant cost due to climate change and the need to preserve natural resources.

That's why Koen Olthouse is now focused on floating architecture.

It's high-time we questioned the homes in which we currently live, which use up space and energy, and replace them with a more fluid, more mobile architecture.

- [Translator 3] For centuries, the Netherlands has been reshaped, and we're used to seeing landscapes constantly change due to all kinds of influences.

I believe we've applied to these buildings the notion that everything is permanently changing.

- [Philippe] In IJburg, I saw some very interesting floating homes, but architecturally still a bit basic.

So I imagine there's still a lot of room for improvement.

- [Translator 3] That's right.

IJburg was designed ten years ago.

They were the first floating homes in one of the first floating districts.

Since then, we've made huge progress.

We're now building houses with gardens, and they're reachable by car, like with homes on dry land.

We always try to go farther.

I'm curious to know where we'll be in five or 10 years time.

You're right to say it's a process in work: with each step we go even farther.

- [Translator 3] IJburg is in fact a long stalk with homes attached to it.

I think our ideas are now going a lot farther.

So if you ask me what'll happen here in the future, I'd say that some of the houses will disappear.

A lot more floating gardens will be added, so it'll be greener.

Or the houses will stay put and a lot more facilities will be added, like a floating movie theater, or a floating grocery store, or a floating school.

Floating facilities which in five, or 10 years can be moved from place to place, or removed and replaced with others.

We need to think about functional flexibility.

When talking about the new towns which will be built on water, in five or 10 years time, the houses themselves might be displaceable, giving even more flexibility.

And they won't be single detached houses, but long terraces, which will create new canals.

- [Translator 3] In a way, we're putting together a big jigsaw puzzle.

And why are we doing that?

Because the needs of a city are constantly changing.

- [Philippe] In IJburg, I discover a second lot of floating houses, all strictly identical and built with prefabricated material: concrete, chipboard and PVC.

The standardization of these homes makes them financially accessible to families seeking space and nature in a district with stores, services and transport just a few minutes by bike from the city center.

18.06 Maartje decided to move here when her daughter was born four years ago.

- [Philippe] Hi, I'm Philippe.

- [Translator 4] Hi, I'm Maartje.

- [Philippe] Hi there.

I was in another part of Waterbuurt before, and it was very different.

Here, all the houses are identical.

- [Translator 4] Yes, that's true.

Over the other side, it's a free development area for some people.

They can design their own home with an architect.

Whereas here, it's called experimental construction, and it's designed by a single architect.

He designed the whole district, so everything looks alike.

- [Translator 4] We couldn't afford one of the houses over there.

The experimental constructions are somewhat cheaper.

Also, the houses at the end of the pier have an open view, which makes them more expensive than those close to the quayside.

- [Philippe] Do you think these similar, connected homes facilitate neighborhood life?

- [Translator 4] Firstly, we all live close together.

Secondly we all have common interests, because we've opted for this type of house, which is a bit out of the ordinary.

Another thing is, we nearly all have children, which is surprising, because you might not expect that on the water.

And finally, the neighborhood is the ideal size.

When you live on a normal street with a hundred other people, you might never get to know them.

But in a close-knit district like this one, with 18 to 20 houses per pier, it makes you want to get to know people.

- [Philippe] Living on water is quite a particular thing.

Can you tell me why you chose to do so?

- [Translator 4] We were living in the center of Amsterdam and we were looking to buy a house outside the city.

But we couldn't find anything we really liked.

Then one day, we saw these floating houses and we said, "Wow, they're really great!"

We thought we would really enjoy living in one.

And it's so special that when you live here, you always feel it's a bit different to living in a standard house.

I think there'll be more and more floating homes in the future.

I don't think everyone will want one; there are a lot of people with kids who think, "We can't possibly live in a floating house!"

But we're in search of space in the Netherlands, and we don't have enough of it.

So the only way to find it, or one of the ways to find it, is on the water.

And that's something we don't lack.

So I think there'll be more and more floating homes.

- [Philippe] Is that an artificial lake?

- [Translator 4] It's a lake now, but it used to be the sea.

The land stopped there and this was the sea.

So we've reclaimed more land, and now this is a lake.

This is the old part of Amsterdam.

Everything opposite us is new; it dates from about 10 years ago.

But where we are now is several 100 years old.

It's the edge of old Amsterdam.

- [Philippe] It's crazy to think the land used to stop here, and all this was reclaimed afterwards.

It seems like it's always existed.

- [Translator 4] For sure, it seems strange.

But that's part of Amsterdam's history.

- [Philippe] Wow, what in the world?

What was that?

- [Translator 4] Weird bike, huh?

- [Philippe] Seriously.

The priority was to finish the kitchen first?

- [Translator 1] Sure, it's the most important part of a home.

You've got to eat, right?

So it's very important.

- [Translator 4] The water makes you feel like you're always on vacation.

Especially on sunny days, when there's a light breeze and the ripples reflect onto the house, and you can hear the ducks on the water.

- [Philippe] I was hungry!

A lot of people live on water, especially in Holland, but I get the feeling that living on water has another significance.

- [Translator 4] We have a lot of urban projects that pay tribute to the water and in which land is retreating to rebuild aquatic zones.

I think it's wonderful because it's truly part of our culture.

The Dutch work on aquatic projects all over the world, constructing polders, islands, and so on.

I see it as a play between water and land and how you can work with the two.

I think it's great to have water available so we can live this way.

- [Philippe] Today, the Dutch seem intent on letting water in rather than continually repelling it.

Instead of fighting against the sea, the time has come to build together with it.

The floating houses of IJburg are perhaps the sign of a new way of living of which the Dutch are the forerunners.

As they have always managed in the past, they are adapting and innovating with these homes which, born of a constraint, are a new, rather hedonistic way of living on water, blending home and leisure.