VIVA-Tech International Journal for Research and Innovation Volume 1, Issue 4 (2021)

ISSN(Online): 2581-7280 Article No. X

PP XX-XX
VIVA Institute of Technology
9th National Conference on Role of Engineers in Nation Building – 2021 (NCRENB-2021)

Design of Amphibious Homes

Raj Jadhav1, Abhishek Jogadia2,Sanket Gawali3, Madan Ghude4
1 Civil Engineering, VIVA Institute of Technology/ Mumbai University, India

Abstract: India is a peninsular country three sides covered with water. It faces a heavy monsoon season that
causes large scale destruction throughout the country. Perennial rivers such as Ganga, Brahmaputra, etc. always
causes flooding in north India and cyclones and heavy monsoon are the reason for flood in southern parts of India.
India is the one of the vulnerable country for climatic change. It should work to provide flood proof, safe and
affordable structures for all citizens.
For centuries, the coastline has been the focus for variety of activities including industries, agriculture, recreation
and fisheries. All the major cities in India have developed along the coastline. Over the past centuries, the sea level
increased nearly eight inches in the coastal area and the scientists suggest a constant increase in sea level due to
climatic change. There are two major factors for sea level rise, melting of ice sheets and thermal expansion of
ocean. These factors are the result of global warming which cannot be changed easily. The sea level rise will have
multiple impacts like migrating from coastal areas, frequent flooding, erode beaches; the net result will be
migration from this densely populated areas.
This report will explore and documents the various ways of protecting and creating a sustainable living
environment for seaside and riverside residents. This will document the projection sea level rise and in change in
climate will increase the frequencies of flood. This dissertation will answer the questions like “How can a
structure sits in ground can survive during floods?” The techniques to provide low flood residents Amphibious
housing functioning both in land and water. Amphibious Architecture is cost effective and safe alternative for
permanent static elevation and it is achieved by buoyant foundations.

Keywords – Amphibious Homes, Buoyant Foundation, Floating Construction, Flood proof, Marine Structure.

I. INTRODUCTION
1.1 General

India being a peninsular country. It is quite prone to flood. As per Geological Survey of India (GSI) the major
flood prone areas covers 12.5% of total country area. Flood, the most common disaster of India causes immense to
country’s property and lives every year. The major flood prone areas in India are river banks and deltas of Ravi,
Yamuna, Gandak, Sutlej, Ganga, Ghaggar, Kosi, Teeste, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi, Mahananda, Damodar,
Godavari, Mayurakshi, Sabarmati and their tributaries. Cyclonic storms can cause floods in Andhra Pradesh,
Orissa and Tamil Nadu. The monsoon rain causes heavy rainfall and flooding in southern eastern a part of country.

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VIVA-Tech International Journal for Research and Innovation Volume 1, Issue 4 (2021)
ISSN(Online): 2581-7280 Article No. X
PP XX-XX
VIVA Institute of Technology
9th National Conference on Role of Engineers in Nation Building – 2021 (NCRENB-2021)

Humans rely on heavy engineering, tidal barriers and riverside and costal defense to protect our built environment
from flooding. In order to protect our residents from floods and rising sea water, alternative design options for
coastal residents should be implemented. As much as 90% of 100 largest cities are located near the sea. These
cities have large amount of water in form of lakes, rivers, canals, harbour. A new residence for coast side and
riverside should be designed to withstand the rising sea water and frequent floods. Those residents should be safe,
flood proof, eliminating the rebuild process after flood and thereby provide healthier and stable family. One of
solution is Amphibious Homess. The solution will also include waterproof material and protection of vital utilities,
design of buoyant foundation, vertical guidance pole attached to the foundation, which provides resistance from
lateral force caused by wind and water. Amphibious Architecture adapts to dry and wet conditions without causing
any damage during or after flood. The development of an amphibious community is a long time strategy that will
minimize the potential risk of flooding in coastal residences.

1.2 Objective
 To find sustainable solution for flooding conditions in India .
 To make affordable upgrade to coastal regions of country.
 To create awareness about new construction technologies.
 To explore affordable materials for this concept.
 To study importance of Amphibious construction in India.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Mohamad Ibrahim Amphibious Homes, a Novel Practice as Flood Mitigation Strategy in South- East Asia
May 2012[1] In this paper they have concluded that in Malaysia amphibious Homes with concrete pontoon is the
most appropriate. Pre-cast concrete pontoons, which are filled by expanded polystyrene blocks (EPS) are one of
the approaches towards economic.

Elizabeth English, Thriving with water: Developments in amphibious architecture in North America
August 2015 [2] Amphibious construction, though not a new concept, has been growing in popularity over the past
decade. The implementation of buoyant foundations as both retrofit and new construction could provide benefit to
communities at high risk of chronic flooding.

Changho Moon Article A Study on the Floating Homes for New Resilient Living October 2015[3] To
investigate the resilient features of floating Homess & to review the possibility of floating housing as a new
form of resilient living, and to suggest some reference ideas for the planning and design of floating housing
projects.

Gursewak Dass, Review Paper on Ferro-cement in Construction May 2017 [4] when we compare Ferro-
cement with RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) it perform better against crack, because wire messes that were
used in Ferro-cement will cover the macro part of Ferro cement structure and avoid cracking. Pre-cast Ferro-
cement structure are in light weight as compared with RCC and sometime pre stressed concrete structure,
considerably reduce the cost hence ferro-cement is most appropriate in pre-cast industry.

Mayank Patel, Floating Concrete by Using Expanded Polystyrene Beads [5] Polystyrene is a versatile plastic
used to make a wide variety of consumer products. As a hard, solid plastic, it is often used in products that require
clarity, such as food packaging and laboratory ware.

III. METHODOLOGY & CALCULATIONS

3.1 Amphibious Dwelling

Amphibious dwelling these type of structure are capable of floating on water while the water level rises and it can
also stay on ground when water level is back to normal level. The key part of this types of structures is the Buoyant
Foundation. There many different types of design for buoyant foundation are widely applicable along with wide
range of materials such as pontoons, dock formations, rafts foundation etc. and materials such as PVC pipes
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VIVA-Tech International Journal for Research and Innovation Volume 1, Issue 4 (2021)
ISSN(Online): 2581-7280 Article No. X
PP XX-XX
VIVA Institute of Technology
9th National Conference on Role of Engineers in Nation Building – 2021 (NCRENB-2021)

concrete hull etc. We are making the use of EPS block for the construction of Buoyant Foundation. EPS block have
high capacity for floating and they are easy to handle which provides high workability. Although skilled
manpower is necessary as this concept differs from our traditional construction techniques and materials,

The Amphibious system consists of three basic elements:

 Buoyancy blocks underneath the Homes that provide flotation,

 Vertical guideposts that prevent the Homes from going anywhere except straight up and down, and
 A structural sub-frame that ties everything together.

There are many factors to be considered while making Homes to be able to float. To restrict the structure from
flowing with the direction of water there are guiding post provided which are sturdy enough to hold the structure in
its place but these guiding post are free to move in Y axis, which allows the Homes to smoothly float with rising
water and when the water level decreases it will bring back the Homes to its original ground level.
It is important that the structure must be as light as possible but also durable enough therefore we are making
the use of ferro cement and light weight concrete for the sub structure.

3.2 Calculations required for design of Buoyant Foundation

Considerable incoming loads in the Homes

The total weight of the family = 235kg
members 4 Members (60kg, 50kg,
55kg, 65kg)

Weight of food (one month) = 250kg

Weight of seed of different crops = 200kg

Self-weight of the structure = 900 kg

Weight of stored drinking water = 80kg

Weight of the utensils, cloth and others = 200 kg

Total weights = 1810Kg

3.3 Calculation for the weight of the Homes using Ferro cement and
other essential materials
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www.viva-technology.org/New/IJRI
VIVA-Tech International Journal for Research and Innovation Volume 1, Issue 4 (2021)
ISSN(Online): 2581-7280 Article No. X
PP XX-XX
VIVA Institute of Technology
9th National Conference on Role of Engineers in Nation Building – 2021 (NCRENB-2021)

Floor LL+DL = 3 + 3 = 6 kN/m2

Ceiling LL+DL = 1.5 kN/m2
Wall DL = 0.4 kN/m2
Area = 6m x 7.6m = 45.6 m2
Floor = 45.6m2 x 6 = 273.6 KN
Ceiling = 45.6m x 1.5 =68.4 KN
Sub Total = 273.6 + 68.4 = 342 KN
½ Total = 342/2 =171kN

Wall weight of ferro-cement = 3m (height) x 0.2 m (thickness) x1m (Unit Length) =0.6 m3

Density of Ferrocement = 1332.09 to1457.89 kg/m3

Density of Ferrocement = 13.3209 to 14.5789 KN/m3
0.6 x 14.5789 = 8.7473 KN
8.747KN x 160m = 1399KN (Since 160m is the total length of wall)
Total load = 273.6 KN + 68.4 KN + 1399 KN = 1741 KN
174100 kg
i.e. 24000/2.205 =
10886.217 kg

The standard EPS-blocks are of 48" x 48" x 96" [1.22m x 1.22m x

2.44m] Full-size maxima are 48½" x 48½" x 194" [1.23m x 1.23m x
4.92m].

Standard EPS blocks 48”x48”x 96”

i.e. 1.22m x 1.22m x2.44m = 3.66 m3
Using EPS Density 24 kg/m3

From Table the Buoyancy force 976 kg/m3 for EPS22

Therefore, No of blocks required = 3 x 5.4 x 7.3/3.66 = 32.31 m3
Approx. 34 blocks of EPS22 of Dim 1.22 x 1.22 x 2.44 are used

SUMMARY

A floating Homes is a building structure that floats on the water surface by leaning to drowned area weight as the
weight parameter which the structure could handle. This research is done to analyze the material platform
To increase the buoyancy of the platform material, the width and height of the platform can be enlarged. Floating
architecture provides certain advantages for the planning of sustainable design, such as:

 New approach to modify flood prone areas.

 Improvements in construction technologies.
 Working with water rather than fighting against it.
 Use of different materials and methods inspired from marine construction

Future Scope

The future scope of Amphibious Homes involves

• Increasing number of floors.

• Making necessary arrangement for Parking.

• The concept can also be elongated into Green Homes.

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VIVA-Tech International Journal for Research and Innovation Volume 1, Issue 4 (2021)
ISSN(Online): 2581-7280 Article No. X
PP XX-XX
VIVA Institute of Technology
9th National Conference on Role of Engineers in Nation Building – 2021 (NCRENB-2021)

• Also the material used for the construction of the building of architecture can be more lightweight

Acknowledgement

We are using this opportunity to express our gratitude to everyone who has supported us throughout the
completion of this project. We are thankful for their guidance, constructive criticism and friendly advice, during
the project work. We express our gratitude to Prof. Jimit Chotai for giving us an opportunity to carry out project on
Design Of Amphibious Home. We would also like to thank Prof. Lissy Jose, Head of Civil Department and Dr.
Arun Kumar, the Principal for their whole hearted support.

Lastly, we express our gratitude towards all those who directly or indirectly helped us in the completion of our
study
References

[1] Mohamad Ibrahim Mohamad1 Mohammad Ali Nekooie1* Zulhilmi Bin Ismail2 Amphibious Homes, a Novel Practice as Flood
Mitigation Strategy in South- East Asia May 2012:

[2] Elizabeth English, Natasha Klink and Scott Turner Thriving with water: Developments in amphibious architecture in North
America August 2015:

[3] Changho Moon Article A Study on the Floating Homes for New Resilient Living October 2015:

[4] Gursewak Dass, Mohit Talwar Review Paper on Ferro-cement in Construction May 2017

[5] Mayank Patel, Rishabh Yadav, Jayvirsinh Parmar, Nishani Salvi Abhijitsing Parmar Floating Concrete by Using Expanded
Polystyrene Beads:

[6] P. Saengpanya and A. Kintarak Thailand’s Floating Homes Project: Safe and Sustainable Living with Flooding October 2019

[7] Agnes Sara Amphibious architecture in the context of Kerala Floods

[8] English, E., Ropel-Morski, Z., and Turner, S., (2015), Amphibious Housing: An Innovative Approach to Seasonal Flood Mitigation
for Vulnerable First Nations Communities, In Proceedings of the International Conference on Amphibious Architecture, Design
and Engineering, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 26-29, retrieved 28 March 2020

[9] S. R. Suryawanshi*, Ashish Dahatre, Review Paper on “Experimental Studies on Ferrocement”

[10] University Waterloo; BRAC University Amphibious Homes for Flood Resilience in Vietnam and Bangladesh

[11] Architects, M. Morphosis architects. < http://morphopedia.com/projects/float-Homes >

[12] Barges: Advantages and disadvantages (history of transportation: Barges) (no date)

[13] Block - expanded polystyrene Australia < http://epsa.org.au/about-eps/eps-in-building/ block/>

[14] Buoyant foundation project < http://www.buoyantfoundation.org/ >

[15] Fenuta, E. Amphibious architectures: The buoyant foundation project in Post-Katrina New Orleans.

[16] Fenuta, E. Amphibious architectures: The buoyant foundation project in Post-Katrina New Orleans (part 2).

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