ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 9 – THESIS RESEARCH WRITING

1ST SEMESTER, SY 2019-1018

LARRACAS, JUSTIN JED D. PRELIMINARY THESIS PROPOSAL NO.1
JULY 2, 2019 ARCH. KIRBY S. MERCADO

PALUTANG - Low Cost floating houses that applies a self-sustaining green design
LOCATION: BACOOR BAY

BACKGROUND TITLE:
Climate change is a hot topic all over the world. It’s a frequent occurring topic in news
and television. According to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), climate change
will result global mean sea level rose by 0.19(0.17 to .21) meters.
The Philippine summers will be hotter and dryer, but when it rains the shower will be
more severe. Sea levels are rising, while the soil is setting and maximum river discharges are
getting higher. The 70% municipalities are in coastal areas were highly vulnerable in flooding
and storm surges. And one of the source of flooding is the clogging of informal settlers houses
in river ways.
The problem of informal settlers continues to grow. MMIAC (Metro-Manila Inter-Agency
Committee on Informal Settlers) says that every five household of informal settler lives in
danger areas such as riverbanks, floodways, aqueducts, and under bridges. Cavite alone have
12000 families of informal settlers along the coastline from Bacoor City to Ternate Town.
The people in the off-site area often lose everything during disasters. Usually before
they recover, a new disaster strikes again. But despite of their situation. It is hard to convince
ISF (Informal Settlers Families) to move from these dangerous zones (near body of waters).
These people would rather to stay in this area than to move to secluded area far from their
income source.
CALABARZON is the second region with the highest no. of ISF with a 221,284 or 15% of
the total ISF in the Philippines. One of the city in CALABARZON that suffers from increasing
informal settlers is Bacoor. City Planning addressed some of the treats through their CLUP. Here
are the list of the said problems. Severe flooding due to climate change, lack of open spaces for
use of parks and evacuation sites, urban blight cause by increase in number of informal settlers.
This problems can be answered by relocating informal settlers.
Than moving them in far inland area where basic necessity is lacking and much forest
land will be reclaimed. One solution for shortage of building land is creating new land in the
sea. Floating structures may offer significant advantages over the traditional land reclamation
technique for offshore colonization. Floating structures have less impact on environment, have
negligible effect on tidal current. Shorter construction time and have the advantage of mobility
that they can be transported over water so their location can be change. Several durable source
of energy can be gained at sea like solar, wind, algae, thermal and wave energy.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT:

This study aims to resolve the major problem of the community that suffers from side
to side climate changes and sudden water level rises. Including in this study is the preservation
of aquatic-cultural livelihood program of the community. And another contribution in the
society is securing the ISF from hazardous elements from living alongside creek, river bank, and
flood prone area in the City of Bacoor.

THE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT:

This study focuses in general architectural design concepts, construction materials and
construction methodologies for the beneficiaries along coastal and flood prone areas. Including
in this research is the sustainability and affordability of structure for the propose Bacoor
Floating Housing that fit into their aquatic-culture livelihood.

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT:

 To relocate Bacoor informal settler family that live in danger zone to a
habitable, sustainable and affordable accommodation within the city of
Bacoor.
 Provide industrial houses that can be an environmental, aquatic-cultural
and typhoon resilient.
 To ponder an innovative solution in the changes of environment, over
populated community and civilization problem
 To create a self-sustaining, environmental low impact floating structure
SAMPLE OF EXISTING PROJECTS RELATED TO YOUR PROPOSAL:

LIFT House – Dhaka Bangladesh

The lift (low income flood-proof technology) house pilot project was designed and
constructed by Prithula Prosun in Dhaka, Bangladesh as an innovative solution for sustainable
housing for low income communities in flood prone areas.
A result of her Master’s thesis in Architecture from the University of Waterloo, Prosun
designed the lift house to float upwards with rising water levels due to floods and water
logging, and return to ground level as the water recedes. With the consequences of our
exploitation of the environment in sight, the lift house is designed to be completely self-
sustaining with no connection to the city’s service systems. The lift house is a new approach to
designing low income communities. Instead of relying on the already struggling service systems
in the city of Dhaka, the individual house is designed to provide basic services to its residents
throughout the year in order to achieve minimal effects on its surroundings.
Floating Homes Waterbuurt - Monteflore

More than half the people living in the Netherlands live below sea level. As sea levels
rise, things are getting more and more complicated: there's less land to build on, and plumbing
becomes difficult. The solution? Floating houses. In fact, Amsterdam's Ijburg neighborhood is
the first floating neighborhood, and has 97 houses. Floating houses are built by creating
foundations of concrete, then filling them with Styrofoam, making them virtually unsinkable.

Waterbuurt is part of the IJburg neighborhood and is located on ‘Steigereiland’ which

forms IJburg’s main access route via the Enneus Heerma Bridge. The neighborhood has 75
individual floating houses moored around slender jetties like house boats.

The floating homes are supported by buoyant concrete tubs submerged in the water to
a depth of half a story. A lightweight supporting steel construction is built on top, which is fitted
with wooden paneling to make rooms and floors. Bedrooms and the bathroom are contained in
the lowest story, which is partly submerged. The raised ground floor houses kitchen and dining
spaces. Connected to an open terrace deck, the main living area occupies the cantilevered
upper floor. Sunrooms, verandas, floating terraces, awnings, etc. can be easily attached to this
skeleton frame.
The houses were built at a shipyard about 65 km north of IJ Lake, then tugged though
canal locks, which means the houses can’t exceed widths of more than 6.5 meters. To ensure
that the homes don’t drift away or into one another, they’re anchored to the lake bed by steel
mooring poles.
Amphibious homes, Maasbommel, The Netherlands

In a recreation area located outside the dikes near Maasbommel in Gelderland Province,
32 amphibious and 14 floating homes have been realised. The amphibious homes are fastened
to flexible mooring posts and rest on concrete foundations. If the river level rises, they can
move upwards and float. The fastenings to the mooring posts limit the motion caused by the
water. The floating homes are lowered when the water level drops and come to rest on
concrete foundations.

The floating and semi-floating homes are similar in construction: a concrete barge with a
relatively light timber-frame construction on top. The concrete barges weigh 72 tonnes each,
while the timber-frame constructions weigh around 22 tonnes. The low centre of gravity gives
added stability. The concrete barges are made from ordinary concrete with an aggregate to
render them waterproof. The joints are reinforced with an additional water-resistant sealing
strip. The barges are approximately 2 metres high, and as such can only be used as basements
or, if part of the home is designed with a split level, as bedrooms.

Projections indicate that the water level will rise by more than 70 cm once every five years,
causing the homes to rise accordingly. The homes can handle fluctuations of up to 5.5 metres.
PRIMARY/SECONDARY/TERTIARY TARGET, USERS, NO. USERS:
Primary users are the local informal settlers at Bacoor city. Secondary users are the
other informal settlers that the government plan to relocate from Manila to Bacoor and other
city in CALABARZON. Tertiary users will be the community of Bacoor City because of the impact
of the project to the said area.

PROPER OWNER/ CLIENT:

City Government of Bacoor

RESEARCH FOCUS:
A Low cost floating housing unit will be the main focus of the study. Creating a feasible
typhoon resilient industrial design that floats considering its impact to society and environment

BUDGET/ FINANCING SCHEMES:

The said project will be funded by NHA (National Housing Authority), SHFC (Social
Housing Finance Corporation) and Bacoor City for the benefit of the ISF.