The Dutch Town Where Homes Sit on Skinny Islands in a Lake
The Dutch Community Where People Live on Strips of Land in a Lake
In Loosdrecht, Netherlands, hundreds of residents live in boat-access-only homes built on thin strips of land within a lake. This unique geography is manmade, a result of centuries-old peat mining: boats dredged swampland for peat, leaving narrow ridges to dry the extracted fuel. Developers later built houses on these strips, creating a one-of-a-kind community.
In much of the world, owning a lakeside home is desirable. But in the Dutch town of Loosdrecht, residents live within the lake itself, with houses on their own impossibly skinny islands.