10 projects in dialogue with water: amphibious architectures selected by Domus

The historic 16th-century residence is now the headquarters of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, a house-museum and a place of study and research. Carlo Scarpa’s intervention involved the general restoration and consolidation of the building, mainly focusing on the ground floor with the construction of the new access bridge, the removal of 19th-century additions, and the garden valorizations through an insightful placement of plants and a fountain. The frequent problematic Venetian phenomenon of “acqua alta” (tide water level raising) is treated as a source of architectural inspiration: a system of steps and pools accommodate and controls the water flooding the ground floor in case of an above-average tide, creating plays of reflection and transparency, and a brand-new spatial dimension.

The complex includes a dwelling with adjoining stables and riding facilities and is characterised by bare, essential volumes lit up by a bold color-blocking, in an osmotic relationship with the courtyards and outdoor spaces. Water is conceived as a functional element integrating domestic life, insinuating itself between the volumes, gushing from fountains and creating large mirrors where men and horses (members of the family in all respects) can bathe to find relief from the heat.

The complex, comprising eight gigantic concrete and brick volumes inspired by primordial geometries and distributed around the central assembly hall, is immersed in an artificial lake that collects monsoon rains and, together with the enormous mass of the building, acts as a natural insulation and cooling system.

The complex – including temporary and permanent exhibition galleries, a 330-seat multi-purpose theatre, a restaurant, a bookstore, training/workshop facilities and administrative offices – is bordered by the Harbour Walk, a public pathway ending up by being incorporated by the project itself; the pier at the centre of this composition becomes a scenic backdrop for a grandstand that opens up from the building towards the water. The visual relationship with the water is in fact the leitmotif of the composition; water filtering in from different perspectives and angles: directly from the large windows offering an immersive experience of the harbour, and in a more nuanced way from the matt glazed surfaces of the monolithic protruding volume.

The Opera House complex is an important driver of regeneration in the former port area undergoing transformation of Bjøzvika. The structure clad in Swedish white granite and Carrara marble stands out in the landscape like a monumental iceberg rising out of the fjord and blurring the boundaries between land and water into which it seems to sink, with its sloping roof generating an urban promenade.

Built along West Brabant Water Line, in origin a defence line on which a group of recently redeveloped 17th-century fortresses is aligned, the access bridge designed by RO&AD for a 17th-century fortress is a trench-like crossing excavated in the waters of the moat, clad in Accoya wood and practically invisible, evoking the suggestion of the separation of waters performed by Moses in the Red Sea according to the Bible.

The Benthemplein water square fulfils a dual function: it is both a public space and a rainwater 'collector'. In the dry season, the square is a lively space for the neighbourhood, carefully designed in its paths, green areas and rest areas. When it rains, three basins (the largest of which is also a sports field and an open-air theatre) are transformed, in the case of minor phenomena, into rainwater collection basins or, in the case of more intense phenomena, into actual settling basins for recycling the water.

Located in the New Salt Industrial Park in Huai'An City, the plant developed for Shihlien Chemical Industrial Jiangsu Co. is one of the largest soda ash and ammonium chloride production facilities worldwide. The project aimed to create a building that blends seamlessly with the water and whose identity can be recognized internationally. Its curved shape, entirely distributed on two exposed-white-concrete-clad levels, evokes the shape of a dragon, elegantly suspended above the water surface.

An “amphibious” house is a building that rests on the ground but every time a flood occurs the entire building rises into its basin where it floats, supported by water. This technology, ideal for areas at high risk of flooding and in listed landscape settings, mixes technologies from the construction industry with maritime technologies and was first used in the UK by Baca architects, in a flood-prone area on the banks of the River Thames. Although it has a fixed foundation the house, consisting of a freestanding timber-framed structure clad in zinc shingles, is able to rise and “float” on water up to an elevation of 2.5 m. 

The city founded as a port in 1867 on the banks of the Amazon River lives in a biunivocal relationship with the river thanks to its amphibious houses: buildings arranged on the ground which, in the case of floods, rise and float like boats supported by the force of the water. In the harbour area, when the river is at its lowest level, houses resting on logs and boulders stand on the hill; when the river starts to rise, the buildings grow half on the land and half on the water; when the river reaches its highest level, the houses float on the water, tied by ropes to metal anchors.