Cities are facing unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, social and spatial challenges. There has been a phenomenal shift towards urbanization, with 6 out of every 10 people in the world expected to reside in urban areas by 2030. Over 90 per cent of this growth will take place in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

In the absence of effective urban planning, the consequences of this rapid urbanization will be dramatic. In many places around the world, the effects can already be felt: lack of proper housing and growth of slums, inadequate and outdated infrastructure – be it roads, public transport, water, sanitation, or electricity – escalating poverty and unemployment, safety and crime problems, pollution and health issues, as well as poorly managed natural or man-made disasters and other catastrophes due to the effects of climate change.

Nearly 70% of Africa’s capital cities—like Lagos, Luanda and Kinshasa—are near water, as well as some Asian ones like Manila and so on, with many urban dwellers living in bungalows, wooden structures and shacks on water. But rising sea levels, increasing rainfall and climate change threaten many of these structures, leaving water slum residents vulnerable to flooding. Today nearby 1 billion people are living under the line of poverty. By 2030 out of the 5 billion people that will be living in cities, 2 billion are going to be under the line of poverty. In this new worldwide emergency housing situation, our role as architects is to improve the capacity of increase the number of livable structures, making them affordable, viable and accessible to people without resources, allowing them to be built by themselves safely.

The main idea is to build a fixed structure, which in turn can rise vertically by itself when the water level surrounding increases. This structure, mainly built in bamboo for its lightness, but that it could also perfectly be constructed in wood, is supported by a grid of pillars every 3 meters, with a total of 12 x 12 meters, supporting a constructed perimeter of 9 x 9 meters, with a cantilever as a perimeter terrace of 1.5 meters wide.

The structure forms a living space of 80 square meters, which can accommodate comfortably a family of 6 members, subdividing the space in their respective rooms: kitchen, dining room, living room, bedrooms and bathrooms.

Under this main structure we place several plastic barrels with different functions:
32 barrels holding the floating structure, when the water rise up. When waters maintain their normal level, the structure rests on the pillars of bamboo countersunk in the lake bed. 8 barrels making the function of collecting and storing rainwater to be consumed by human beings that inhabit the structure. 8 barrels making the function of storing sewage tanks, which must be checked and emptied regularly before to reach its capacity limit.

Both enclosures, facade and roof cover, may be made in local materials, such as dry palm leaf, stitched together to provide impermeability to the cabin. This may include an alternative option mating with some kind of metal sheet, although this option would be possible avoided due to their high thermal transmission.

To complete the affordability and independence of this structure, we will provide it with solar photo-voltaic panels on its roof, together with solar heating system, in terms to provide of warm water to its inhabitants.