The large windows let in fresh breezes and provide an opportunity for the owners to jump out of the house and into the water.

A bothouse in Georgian Bay, Ontario, by Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Ltd. is clad in black-stained resawn cedar.

A food-service area with a bar is a defining feature.

A DublDom house rests on a barge.

Cedar slats help this Ontario lake house float soundly atop still waters. Photo by: Raimund Koch

Ducks swim close to the windows.

Amid the motley of architectural styles, from nautically inspired to shingled country cabin, Herbie Schlaepfer and Barbara Haeusermann's newly built, 2,894-square-foot home is like a palate cleanser for the eyes. One zinc cube cantilevers off the other, with great walls of glass that slide open and disappear.

The tiny houseboat, named Sneci, is crafted primarily from wood and aluminum.

The Dusky Parakeet is outfitted with a 500-liter water storage tank and solar panels, so it can run 100% off the grid if needed.

“By creating high ceilings with large windows, the feeling is all about space and light,” says architect Robert Nebolon, principal of Berkeley firm Robert Nebolon Architects. The 2,100-square-foot floating house was built on land in six months before settling into its final location in Mission Creek.

The dwelling is raised on three marine-grade, aluminum-alloy flotation tubes, each with five sealed compartments for extra safety.

A Norwegian boathouse by TYIN featured in Cabins (Taschen, 2014).

SHED converted the side door into the front door, adding a new entry sequence with a patio, landscaping, stairs, and a metal awning to protect the porch. Wide stairs and a patio lead down to new sliding glass door in the basement, which now has utility spaces and a media room/office. Many of the original window openings were kept on this façade and given new Andersen E-Series units. Two smaller openings were bricked in.

On the edge of the lake is a boathouse with a kitchenette and roof terrace.

The 1,020-square-foot home features decks off the living room and both bedrooms.

Currently moored in the heart of Lake Union, the Pied-A-Mer is conveniently located near downtown Seattle.

While the Andante has a nautical-inspired exterior, the interior is another story.

Blackened timber clads the boathouse.

Created as a prototype for a serial production, Port X was designed by architects Jerry Koza and Adam Jirkal, along with engineer Tomáš Kalhaus from Atelier SAD.

This full-fledged floating house was designed with features that are meant to live comfortably year-round.

“Water Villa” features a sunken floor below the water and an atrium at the centre of the house that connects the children's rooms in the basement with the ground floor living and dining room.

In 1910, Frank C. Barnes commissioned Kruse & Banks to build the Mirene (named after his wife, Isabelle Mirene Payne) as a 64-foot gasoline schooner for tending canneries in Alaska. The schooner was completed in Coos Bay, Oregon, two years later. The Mirene was then converted into a diesel tugboat by the 1930s and in the mid 70s, she had been sailed to Sausalito, California, stripped of all hardware, and changed into a floating home in Dredgetown, an old houseboat community.

The new building has slightly less square footage and is nested within the same area as the original foundation.

The couple plan to add a kitchen garden to the platform just below the terrace that connects to the kitchen.

In Hamberg, Germany, Houseboat on the Eilbekkanal is enveloped in sliding timber slats, creating a constant connection between the interior and the exterior.

Architect Guillermo Acuña’s sprawling getaway lines the coast of Isla Lebe in the Chiloé Archipelago in Chile. He developed it in stages, first building a boathouse with a modest living space, then adding two cabins and later remodeling the boathouse. An avid sailor, he often sets out to explore the nearby fjords. The archipelago is midway between Santiago and Tierra del Fuego and comprises more than 30 islands and islets.

“The house’s narrow footprint works for us in terms of maximum exposure to the lake,” says Gibbs (shown here with son Blake and dog Max on the shore of Lake Iosco). Glass walls and doors by Andersen also mean that Gibbs can keep a close eye on Blake when he’s playing in the yard. A plinth of reused bedrock found on the property has become an unintended place for active play.

Kayaks and windsurfing equipment are stored in the main cedar-clad volume.

The relatively simple construction incorporates clever sustainable design: a two-level wood roof structure keeps the sun’s heat away from the interior, and small windows at either end facilitate powerful cross-ventilation. It’s natural air-conditioning, and it works beautifully.

“One of the most important problems we had to deal with was how we used the space available,” says Bene. “We installed a sliding door between the interior and the open rear deck, which saved a lot of space and means that the door never blocks the view or the way.”

A Norwegian boathouse. Photo Courtesy of Pasi Aalto / TASCHEN #cabin #boathouse