Bluefield Houseboats – A Contemporary Home Kitted Out with Smart Technology

This contemporary house boat is the work of Bluefield Houseboats, a company that specializes in prefabricated floating homes. Prefabricating the homes allows them to better monitor and control the construction process, minimizing material waste.

According to Inhabitat, the home’s are built with passive design techniques in mind (although there’s no mention of what measures they’ve taken, and it’s not evident from the pictures alone).

Bluefield Houseboats are located in Ireland but ship their products worldwide. In recent years we’ve seen an increase in the number of people opting for houseboats instead of a traditional home. This is partly due to the sky-high cost of living in large dense cities like London and New York; houseboats can be a more affordable alternative.

The boats are based off of a modular system, whereby the interior can remain completely free from internal columns and supporting partition walls. This leaves customers with total freedom with regard to the interior layout. The houseboats themselves come in a variety of sizes, from 500 square feet to 2,000 square feet. They can also be built over one or two levels.

From Bluefield Houseboats: “We aim to offer the same standard of living on the water as on land. At Bluefield Houseboats our mission is to create high quality, useable space on the water which is accessible to all and maximizes the use of modern technology to explore sites which have previously been inaccessible.”

Energy usage is controlled through a SMART home automation system. It can be used to monitor everything from appliances, lights and entertainment systems from your smartphone. The boats are also designed to meet both land and water-based classification – handy if you ever want to set it on a plot of land instead.

For more house boats check out The River Den, a cozy home set on the Gatineau River in Quebec. Or, this century old icebreaker barge that’s been converted into a tiny home on the water. See all houseboats.

Via Inhabitat
Photos: Bluefield Houseboats