Living on Water by Gagandeep Sandhu is a student housing project about flood resilience, Thamesmead and the possibility of living with water rather than only defending against it.
The proposal uses floating homes, shared decks and climate-adaptive design to ask what housing could become as low-lying urban areas face more severe flood risk.
Project gallery
The gallery shows the floating housing strategy, waterfront setting and community spaces that turn flood risk into the main design question.
Project overview
Gagandeep is a Part I Architecture graduate from the University of Nottingham. His final-year thesis won the Housing Prize for Part I and was shortlisted for the Third Year Portfolio Prize.
The project focuses on Thamesmead, a low-lying area of London where housing, infrastructure and public life have to be considered against long-term climate risk. Instead of treating water only as a threat, the scheme explores homes that can rise and fall with changing levels.
Design strategy
- Floating modular homes supported by resilient piles and utility pontoons.
- Timber-clad dwellings arranged around shared waterfront decks.
- A community model that keeps public space central to the housing idea.
- A flood-resilient approach that adapts over time rather than relying only on hard defence.
Why the project matters
Flood-resilient housing can become too technical if the drawings only focus on engineering. This proposal is useful because it also thinks about daily life: how people arrive, meet, share space, look out to water and feel part of a community.
Showcase a climate-adaptive housing project
Architecture Social can feature student work that explores flooding, overheating, reuse, low carbon materials or future housing with clear design evidence.
- Explain the climate risk in plain language.
- Show how the architecture responds spatially and technically.
- Keep people, movement and community life visible.
- Use drawings and captions that make the adaptation strategy easy to understand.
Connect with the designer
You can find Gagandeep on LinkedIn.
Architecture Social view
Stephen’s recruiter view is that climate projects are strongest when the candidate can explain the technical response and the human experience in the same breath. The idea has to work as housing, not just as a diagram.
Next step
Explore more student projects, read the portfolio guide, or submit your project to Architecture Social.
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