Floating homes, stilts challenge flood risk in UK

Sutton Courtenay, UK

UNLIKE many of their neighbours living near the banks of the River Thames in central England, Martin and Joanna worry little about their charming country home being engulfed by floods.

Wary of the dangers posed by climate change and a history of disastrous flooding in this pretty part of Oxfordshire, an hour's drive from London, the couple have opted for a home built half a metre off the ground on 27 steel pillars.

"It's always been a dream to build this house," said Joanna O'Callaghan. "It was clear that we had to build up above the flood plain." Their home contrasts with the mostly red-brick, wooden-beamed houses that dot the area of picturesque villages, castles and hills, which attracts city dwellers on weeke…