A dream come true. This is how New York architect Adam Wiesehan, from the Rekstur agency, talks about his cabin-boat built two years ago. He also called it Kairu House, choosing a poetic Japanese word to mean both the ocean (kai) and current (rū). In search of a more sustainable construction method, Adam turned to old recycled shipping containers to give birth to his project.
Two large stacked boxes that he moored in a small marina hidden away in the borough of Queens. Resting on two barges, the structure of the dwelling was previously assembled in a shipyard on Staten Island. The cost of this unique prototype house is around 150,000 euros for an area of 100 square meters, and Adam Wiesehan brought in local craftsmen, notably from Brooklyn.
Anticipate rising waters
“Inside, it’s a bit the world upside down”, explains the architect. The bedrooms and the bathroom are on the ground floor and, on the first floor, the kitchen-living room is extended by balconies. “We wanted to make the most of the view and the natural environment, especially the many birds”, he specifies. Its horizon: the beautiful Rockaway Peninsula, located southeast of Long Island.
Less than an hour by subway from Lower Manhattan or Brooklyn, this popular seaside resort since 1830 and darling of surfers has woken up. In recent years, urban youth fleeing the exorbitant costs of Manhattan have found more affordable prices and a pleasant seaside neighborhood.
“The cabin-boat is for me a solution to the housing problem experienced by all major cities”, says Adam Wiesehan, who has also incorporated the threat of sea level rise and regular flooding on the Rockaway Peninsula into his thinking. By building his floating house, he also inaugurated a new personal way of life: he now spends at least six months a year there, from spring to the first frost of the harsh New York winter.
rekstur.com
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