HomeHaven

The challenge

Especially with the current extended decommissioning of cruise ships, life boats constitute a big source of non-recyclable waste in the marine industry. Although they have a limited lifetime for their designed use case, these boats are still fully functional and designed for offshore use. There is currently no use for these large number of retired boats which leaves them to rest on boat graveyards where they will be slowly absorbed by the environment.

The solution

These life boats can be given a second life by transforming them in fully-equipped tiny cozy houses. Renovating the boats could include building an interior and fitting sustainable elements such as an electric engine or solar panels. The boats can be then either rented out for affordable vacations or as proper alternatives, especially for students, for the heated housing market in many Dutch cities, where grachten and house boats docks already exist. The video below shows a great implementation of a lifeboat being transformed to a tiny house. Credits for the cover photo: Ein Dahmer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons