Lismore Amphibious Building
The Northern Rivers region in Australia was devastated by floods in February and March 2022. Lismore CBD was flooded by a 15m rise of the river, which overtopped the levee with 4 meters. To build back better, Bart van Bueren proposed this amphibious (up-floating) building for resilience against future floods.
This solution is new to Australia, but its technologies have been successfully applied the Netherlands and elsewhere. To be flood resilient in Lismore, this building is to withstand 10m height of fast flowing water. This is made possible through a heavy tall wall facing the river current, shielding a light-weight body with three floors of building-space. This body will float up along with the rising river, and is also safe to recede back on its foundation through features that avoid debris accumulating below it.
