Houseboat is a residential project completed by Mjölk Architekti in 2014.
The home is located in Prague, Czech Republic.
Houseboat by Mjölk Architekti:
“Most of our clients wants to live in their own house. Everyone of them wants to have a home in a beautiful place, most of them near to the center or very near to its developed infrastructure. At today´s prices to such an ideal place can realistically afford only a fraction of them and only part is willing to pay for the land, which cost is equivalent to several times the price of the average plot.
Our clients search their own way how to achieve the best value ratio. But the best value means different things for different people. If your claims are flexible enough and you can bear a few compromises you can get a reasonable things for good money. Sometimes we are asked to work on a plot which is on a steep hill that only a fool would buy, the other time we design a house so narrow that it remains of noodle where you can barely turn around. Each client sees the value elsewhere. When selecting the plot, the basis is to think and see the future. ‘How I live today, how will I live in two years or in ten years? Maybe I will need a stroller for triplets or I will become fond of cycling.’ Things are changing and a small analysis of our own lives wouldn´t hurt anybody.
The quality houses raises from extreme places. Limits and problems don´t necessarily mean a tragedy. The great amount of fantastic houses are built in very improbable conditions.
The size of the house wasn´t the criteria for one of our clients. He wanted to reconstruct an old houseboat anchored in area of Sailing club in Smichov. His requirement was easy: to live in the centre of Prague with a little bit of navy romance, to be able to go for a bear with his boat or to get to sunday´s Farmers market in city centre on the quay. Today our adventurer and traveler can tell the stories how he slew shark with a tripod camera. So the conclusion is: live in the city, buy houseboats!”
Photos courtesy of Mjölk Architekti
What happens when one of those empty plastic drums that the house is floating on springs a leak?