Schoonschip | Concrete floats form the foundation of project Schoonschip

Every new home, ark or office on the water starts with a concrete hull. So too Schoonschip in the Johan van Hasselt Canal in Amsterdam-North, which is to become Europe's most sustainable floating neighborhood. Commissioned by contractors Bouwbedrijf van Middendorp, Bouwbedrijf Willem Beverloo, Balance d'eau and a number of private clients, Hercules Floating Concrete realized practically all the concrete floats for the 30 waterfront lots, which should provide space for 46 households.

The floats consist of double-reinforced concrete floors and walls, on which the contracting parties built the homes. "Normally the floats are realized in a dry dock," says Marco Gieskens on behalf of Hercules Floating Concrete. "In this project, however, they were poured on land next to the water. In fact, due to their size and weight, the floats did not fit in the dry docks of traditional ark builders. Moreover, this made construction significantly easier for the contracting parties."

All of the floats, after the precast reinforcement was applied, were cast in a single pour. "To meet sustainability requirements, most of the homes are equipped with a heat pump, which extracts heat (and cold) from the canal water," Gieskens says. "The heat pump collector and all source pipes are integrated into the bottom of our floats."

Just before Christmas, Hercules Floating Concrete delivered the final floating home. The heaviest house - with a total weight of 340 tons - was placed in the water in early May.