Lake Huron House

On the shores of a tiny island in Georgian Bay, an unusual cottage sits on the surface of the water. This is the Lake Huron Floating House. When the owners bought this vacation property, they wanted to make sure that what they built did not take away from the rugged beauty of the area. There were already some simple and nonobtrusive buildings on the property, but the idea for a floating house appealed to the owners because it would leave more of the island to be enjoyed in it’s present state.

Large steel pontoons allow the two-story structure to float. The pontoons and the skeletal structure were floated to the contractor’s workshop, where the additional construction and framing was finished, before being floated back to site for the finishing touches. This approach was chosen because the site’s remote location would have otherwise made construction complex.

With the changing climate, and increasing human interference in the watershed of Lake Huron, the water levels on the bay have become unpredictable, and now fluctuate more dramatically than they did historically. Many cottages in the area have been flooded in recent years. However, the Lake Huron Floating House safely moves up and down with the water levels, showing how unconventional construction can help to mitigate flooding. Although the Lake Huron House is not amphibious, it is easy to imagine how amphibiation could be applied in a similar situation.