You can hear the jokes already: too much hydroponic skunk, a crate or three of Grolsch, and then a sudden architectural epiphany: "Shtop! What are we doing? Let's build the chilled out houses that can go with the flow instead up uptight dikes and defences!"

Inevitable, no doubt. But the Dutch architects who have invented new buildings designed to accept rather than resist the rising torrent may well have come up with the perfect housing solution for a globally-warmed world.

Faced with this grim reality, the Dutch have decided to rethink their time-honoured methods of defence and come up with more innovative ways to live with the threat. Building houses that float is part of the plan: instead of holding back the water, the Dutch have decided to live on it.

Floating Suburbs 

Houseboats, I hear you say. Not quite. The water houses designed by architect Art Zaaijer for the building company Ooms Bouwmaatschappij certainly float. But the six two-storey versions constructed as prototypes have staircases and pitched roofs and don't look remotely like a boat.

The Canadians have been using this system for years and the Dutch are now adapting it to create whole new water-based urban quarters. Among the most prominent is the new Ijburg district of Amsterdam which, when finished, will provide 18,000 homes, as well as floating offices, schools, hospitals, and transport facilities.

Ooms Bouwmaatschappij's six houses are now a sales centre for the new scheme and the company will eventually provide 500 of the new homes in the development. At €200-500,000 a pop, they don't come cheap. And it's difficult to see where the little Gullits and van Nistelrooys of the future will kick a ball around. But that hasn't stopped 5,000 people joining the waiting list. Maybe it's the fact that they can always move the house elsewhere if they don't like the neighbours. The homes are manoeuvred into place by a tug boat and can be transported in the same way - so a bit of site-swapping seems on the cards.

Art Zaaijer is not the only Dutch architectural practice dreaming up floating houses and cities. An alternative version, designed by Factor Architecten, has been constructed by the developers Dura Vermeeron on a small estate on the banks of the river Maas, south of Arnhem. 

When the river breaks its banks each of the the 37 houses will rise on a pair of 15-foot concrete piles to escape the torrent. As the waters recede the amphibious houses drop back down to earth again. The attractive split-level structures, with curved roofs, clapboard exteriors, and flexible open-plan interiors, certainly put a lot of British new-built houses to shame. 

Facing the river and enjoying marvellous views, they're surrounded by ample terraces and jetties where the residents can moor their boats.