Loftboats

Tectum publishers has set off down the towpaths of Europe in search of river bargesthat have been turned into lofts. Riding their anchors in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, these vessels filter plans for nomadic living through their scuttles. They also hark back to the past and the river-boatmen's secret world. Our publisher has selected around thirty of them to carry us into a world of creative and unusual spaces.

A new generation of 'long-stall' travellers has created a new way of living that is closely intertwined with the environment, be it urban or rural, as they steam along, putting into port in Paris one day, Ronquières the next and Ghent or Amsterdam after that. Living on the fringes of traditional lifestyles, they have succeeded in combining with their dreams of freedom a creative approach to the organisation of previously unexplored spaces.

The great adventure starts with the landlubber's unprecedented meeting with a steel hull, the belly of which had formerly been swollen with all sorts of cargo for thousands of voyages. They first had to tame each other and adjust their desires to the practices and customs of another world. It would seem from our visits that the marriage is a happy one. In offering these worthy river barges a golden retirement, these new freshwater sailors appear to have been touched by the grace and gentleness of an ever-changing flow.

Welcome aboard!

With the support of Verbeke Bunkering N.V.