Sluishuis Residences in IJburg, Amsterdam
A futuristic architectecure merging urban and lagoon levels
BIG
Opened in the summer of 2022, the Sluishuis residential complex stands out as a sort of artificial island at the water’s edge, deliberately distanced from the mainland to make a corner of the city on the lake inhabitable. Indeed, Sluishuis has been deservedly referred to as “floating housing” because this is precisely what it is: a massive textural block, eleven stories high, hosting 422 zero-energy residences. It seems to lie lightly on the waters of the Ijsselmeer reservoir, anchored to the dock like a large floating raft. In this project, the Danish firm BIG, in collaboration with Barcode Architects, again experiments with the opportunities of contemporary housing and realizes a futuristic architecture that materializes the possibility of literally being able to live on water. The floating house theme is tackled and reinterpreted on a grand scale: Sluishuis is a huge houseboat, the largest housing complex ever built on water.
