‘Dreams come true’
Island Living on a floating barge, can you imagine living at sea or in a former dock in the city? Entrepreneurial duo Willem Jan Landman and Michiel Zwart are able to develop your future floating enchanting dreamhouse.
Willem Jan (1978) is a professional sailor and architect by origin. After 14 years of working for renowned Dutch Architects and designing private villas like Villa Kogelhof (Paul de Ruiter Architects), he founded his company Sailing Architect Ltd. in 2018, bringing both his passions together. Within Sailing Architect he provides his expertise in the sailing business and exclusive Yacht Marketing for Sailing SuperYachts, like the 172 ft. Doña Francisca. In 2023, he co-founded Circular Floating Districts Ltd. and the floating homes brand VLOAT ® Ltd. with Michiel, a naval architect, real estate developer and also a passionate sailor,
Michiel (1978) has worked for several well-known shipyards in various disciplines for over two decades. These include DAMEN and Amels, where he developed icons of innovation, technically sophisticated and elegant designs for SeaXplorer and YachtSupport vessels.Currently he is also engaged in the design of very large sailing yachts. Michiel has a renowned history in houseboat liveaboard designs, as he is the designer of a dozen houseboats in the Netherlands for mostly private clients.
With clients from all over the world, from Ushuaia to Amsterdam, requesting Boutique Hotels, villas or residential apartments, these Dutch entrepreneurs are developing the new way of living on the water.
Passionate about architecture and development, Willem Jan and Michiel launched the concepts for their floating housing project, called VLOAT®. The concept comprises four designs, two of these are featured here and ready to be built around the world, the Water Community and the Water Villa.
The Water Community design provides eight 3-level residential apartments of 210 – 245 m2 Gross Floor Area each, using a former dry dock as a basis. The design offers tremendous water views from each floor. One side can be opened to create a collective entrance with a common exterior court, functioning as an extension of outdoor living, fulfilling the dream of a true Islander! Optimized interactions with light throughout the day are achieved by opening the walls of the Dry-Dock.”
Or imagine a river barge with 2 – 4 Water Villas on one barge. Ranging from 90 m2 Gross Floor Area up to custom made sizes. Each with a private waterfront, so you can step aboard your private tender or onto a Sailing Yacht from the deck of these exclusive Water Villas.
All concepts of VLOAT® are completely circular and self-sufficient. These projects are ahead of time and state of the art. The previously used dry-docks and offshore pontoons (so-called North Sea Pontoons) are set as the foundation structure. This creates an amazing maritime character, with the base of the project being a 100% circular and reusable solution. All projects offer a flexible, efficient and elegant modular living solution, with high end materials and superb craftmanship, fully built in Cross Laminated Timber. This brings an aesthetic natural feeling to the living environment and cosmopolitan feeling at the water. Just imagine yourself living in such scenery.
