The Arkup No.1 Floating Home is not just a luxurious concept but a revolutionary one. Designed by Dutch architect Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio.nl, Arkup is a unique floating home realised from Olthuis’s  philanthropic focus on future habitats and the challenges of rising sea levels and floods resulting from climate change as well as the needs of a booming world population.

The 4 bedroom (each equipped with its own en-suite bathroom) luxury “houseboat” is an off-grid “blue dwelling” and so you aren’t exactly “living on a yacht” – you get to enjoy all the creature comforts of landed real estate except that you’re living right on the water instead of a mere waterfront.

The Arkup #1 floating home is a US$5.5 million luxury boathouse investment against rising sea levels

Ranked 122nd on TIME Magazine’s list of the most influential people in the world, Olthuis and his firm specialises in floating structures and homes. His own native Netherlands (through innovative use of dikes, Holland is built mostly on wetlands) with one-third reclaimed land and sits below sea-level so water-based issues are challenges that he has a unique perspective on. The Arkup No.1 or officially “Arkup #1” is a 75 ft (22.9m) long two-story luxury houseboat with 4,350 sq ft of space; the first edition floating home was furnished by Brazil’s Artefacto.

For sale for US$5.5 million, Olthuis’s luxurious Arkup floating house should be the ultimate high net worth individual’s contingency plan against the looming spectre of climate change. Unveiled at the recent Miami Ycaht Show, the Arkup #1 floating home boasts solar power, stabilizing hydraulic stilts, and its own engines. The hydraulic stilts are an innovating  self-elevating system can go down 20 feet to lift it above the waves, keeping you and your home safe in a storm. Suffice it to say, if you happened to be caught away from the shore during a storm or a calamitous tsunami event, the Arkup is a literally boathouse, it would just float on the mega waves. Arkup No. 1 is also designed to withstand a Category 4 hurricane (up to 250 km/h winds) and carries stories stored solar energy reserves in its 1,000 kWh battery pack for night time power needs as well as a rainwater collection system for moderate water self-sufficiency.

A pair of 100kW thrusters with 272 horsepower can move the Arkup #1 luxury boathouse up to seven knots, allowing high net worth individuals to flee some of the devastation should a climate disaster strike. Arkup livable yachts combine the best attributes of yachts, floating houses and waterfront villas, with the added benefits of being self-sufficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly.

#1 is for sale in Miami and there are plans to build three more in the next 12 months. There are also preliminary project plans for eco-resorts in the Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean.

Explore the trend for floating cities