Koen Olthuis’s Dutch practice, Waterstudio, has been preparing for the environmental impacts on architecture for ten years now – building a practice on the assumption that a new solution for inhabitation is on the water. Having lived in Amsterdam, Olthuis has intimate experience with the battle against water that people have posed for themselves. In an interview with Jill Fehrenbacher for Inhabitat, Olthuis describes how Amsterdam was settled, what it means to have a city built upon water and the maintenance required. Olthuis’ desire to colonize the oceans is not new, but his techniques, which he touches upon in this TEDx Talk in Warwick, focus on a refined and innovative way of approaching this strategy that is progressive in that it requires far less maintenance.
Koen Olthuis has built a practice on the strategy of offshore living. While Waterstudio has produced mostly houseboats, the firm is prolific in the prospective architecture of the opportunities of living on the water. In the TED talk, Olthuis describes a future that includes resorts on the water floating on concrete and foam foundations. He describes ecosystems that can be plugged into a body of water via the Seatree. The practice challenges current building strategies, especially those employed by Amsterdam- a city built on mounds within the bay. For centuries the city has been actively pumping the water out – an expensive and energy-consuming system. Olthuis proposes rethinking this strategy and embracing the water as a boundary and opportunity for occupation.
