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REALFINA OYFLOATING SPACES SPATIAL CONCEPTDesign: Guy Design Group Oy 2008 (Open Series) Combining boat building and construction industries, the Floating Spaces spatial concept is an alternative to houseboats. The house is assembled on a floating hull made of fibreglass composite. The building functions as a passive low-energy house and is also competitively priced. Houseboats are also being introduced in Finland. The Floating Spaces concept for living on water is an alternative to the houseboat. Its main idea is a floating platform on which the building is assembled. Structures based on this concept resemble traditional architecture more than boats and are also suited to the small scale and sensitive environment of shoreline locations. The Floating Spaces concept utilizes elements that have been in use for a long while in the boat-building industry. The floating element is a trimaran hull made of fibreglass composite which can withstand Finnish ice conditions. A platform is constructed on top of the hull and the building is assembled on it using light-weight elements and components. The design and architecture combine boat construction with building on the shoreline. The open floor-plan offers spaciousness and open vistas, but can also permit the space to be divided according to the needs of inhabitants. The building costs of a floating house are only approximately one-fifth of the costs of building a house on dry land. Maintenance costs are also low. The building operates as a passive low-energy house using, among other features, solar panels and thermal pumps conveying heat from sea water. The Floating Space concept is well suited to leisure homes. No Floating Spaces houses have yet been built. Realfina Oy Lyökkiniemi 4 C, 02160 Espoo Tel. +358 (0)9 4126 221 realfina@webinfo.fi |
