Nov 23: Design a floating house
Assigned Teachers: Suren, Piyumika, Avanthi
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes
Team Formation: Induvidual or pairs
Today we’re going to design our very own houseboat — a tiny home that floats on water. Around the world, people live, learn, shop, and even watch movies on floating structures, from the floating schools of Lagos to Thailand’s markets and Europe’s floating cinemas. We’ll explore how to make the most of a very small space, just like real boats and airplanes do, and imagine what kind of life could unfold inside a 16' x 8' floating home of our own.
Objectives:
Visualize: Explore water as a place where people can live and build.
Observation: Test materials to see what sinks or floats.
Making and Problem solving: Imagine life on a houseboat in a changing climate, and Practice designing creatively within a very small space.
You will need:
Chalk or masking tape (to mark the 16' × 8' houseboat footprint on the bb court)
A large tub or bucket of water (for sink–float testing)
Students to bring: two empty plastic bottles each
Paper and pencils for sketching ideas
A collection of found objects (plastic caps, sticks, corks, leaves, bottle pieces, small cardboard scraps)
Basic building materials (cardboard, paper, popsicle sticks, straws, foil, string, tape, glue)
Scissors and pens
Warm up:
Show images/videos of floating communities and compact designs (airplanes, boats).
(before the class) Mark a 16’ x 8’ rectangle on the basketball court using string, chalk or tape.
Discuss:
How do people live and move in small spaces?
How can we be creative and multifunctional when space is limited?
Ask students: If you could live on water, what would your dream home need in a small space?
Start sketching together with chalk on the court.
Main Exercise (60 mins): Design and build your own miniature floating house boat
Sketch ideas in plan form on a paper, you can use this as a base for your model:
Zones/rooms: sleeping, cooking, lounging, play
Furniture and multifunctional features
Creative inspirations: decks, observation points, compact storage, foldable or movable features
Encourage applying tricks from airplanes and boats (e.g., fold-down beds, stacked storage, efficient seating).
Build the boat:
Have a bucket of water in the class, and ask students to test if materials sink and float. what would be better for building your boat?
Design and build your boat, referencing the video below.
Conclusion:
Sink or float test
Test the boats in the bucket of water