Living with the water: the Netherlands’ floating futures – photo essay

<p>Photographer Alessandro Gandolfi’s project looks at how sustainable floating neighbourhoods in the Netherlands offer a way forward as the sea rises, by embracing the philosophy of meebewegen: learning to live with the water</p><p>“A pitiful land, flooded twice a day,” was the verdict of the Roman savant, Pliny the Elder, of a region where “wretched peoples living in huts” must battle perpetually to resolve the question of “whether this region belongs to the land or the sea”.</p><p>The Greek geographer Pytheas reckoned “more people die here in the struggle against water” than against men. Yet by the late 17th century, the Netherlands was arguably Europe’s wealthiest nation. Even today the Dutch are, per head, in the global top 10.</p><p>The artist and singer Floyd Brollo, left, with two friends on the houseboat they live on in the centre of Amsterdam, along Keizersgracht.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/10/living-with-the-water-the-netherlands-floating-futures-photo-essay">Continue reading...</a>