[smiley]

Ok, it might be that I'm not of dutch origin and missing some essential genes here, but I have a hard time understanding this. I have these friends which just have bought a home in Holland.

Now these are newly built homes and for some reason the architect decided to take a normal house design and plant it up side down in the dirt. So most of the house is below ground level including things like bedrooms, bathrooms etc.

Now I like underground homes and I think in many places they are a great Idea. But not in Holland.

For those of you who don't know Holland; it is kind of flat, and the groundwater level is never far away. Certainly in that area which used to be a bog. Half their future house is below groundwater level. If the retainer wall fails they have 6 feet of water in the bedroom.

It is also below the sewer level so they rely on pumps to remove waste and rainwater. If the shutter valves fail they have 6 feet of crap in their bedroom.

A year back I nominated gas fired outdoor terrace heaters as the most ludicrous idea of the past hundred years. I think I might have to reconsider that.

[wisconsin_cur]

And if the electric fails which powers the pumps...

It is not "courage" if it is stupid.

[Ferretlover]

Holland will again, regretfully, be underwater again. It really amazes me at how stupid people can be; and, it is Not comforting to know that stupidity in not exclusively an American trait.
I don't remember what Grief stage it is, but I am at the "stupid-people-deserve-what-they-get-and-I'm-not-gonna-help-them-one-little-bit stage."

[Plantagenet]

I've been to Holland several times, and on the last trip spent a week camping on a North Sea barrier island along the Dutch coast a few years ago. The Dutch live in a difficult natural environment but they have been flourishing there since at least Roman times----today they are the best engineers in the world when it comes to dealing with sea level, tides, flooding and such.

Much of the country is built on land reclaimed from the sea. This land is going to flood and thousands of people are going to die a la Katrina if they don't do their engineering right on the sea dikes that keep the ocean water out. A few houses below the groundwater table is no big deal there.

[JPL]

Worth pointing out that the so-called 'grain belt' of the UK is also mainly reclaimed marshland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Anglia

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')uch of the area is characterised by its flatness, partly consisting of fenland and reclaimed marshland,

[Ainan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JPL', 'W')orth pointing out that the so-called 'grain belt' of the UK is also mainly reclaimed marshland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Anglia

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')uch of the area is characterised by its flatness, partly consisting of fenland and reclaimed marshland,

[Bas]

being from Holland I'd say the lower part of the country will be safe for the short and medium term, but I'm worried about the long term or sea level rises of more than 1 or 2 meters, anything above that and it will become economically unviable to invest in protection measures. While still a long way off, it is the reason why the Dutch are so alarmed by climate change. Btw, hurricanes like katrina don't naturally occur here, any big storm or hurricane remnant has to pass over England first before it hits here.

As for the house, it sounds like modern architecture gone mad.