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  Being on the water would no longer mean you have to rough it up, says a Dubai-based interior decoration architect who has created what is probably one of the world’s most unique homes.

  ‘O’ de Squisito, a floating duplex apartment created by Belgian-born Leen Vandaele, who now uses the boat as a weekend getaway retreat, is probably the first floating concept in the world created with so much class and comfort.

  A descendant of a noble Belgian family, Vandaele has always had a penchant for the unusual. Her interest in interior design and the arts started from an early age. In her 11^th year she was playing with brick, laid off for workers who were extending her family’s house. This was the time when she created her first house.

  “My father delayed the builders for one month because I wanted to keep my mock house,” said Vandaele, who has since then traveled the world, obtained a pilot’s license and organized numerous charitable activities in her native Belgium before shifting to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and later to Dubai.

  Her floating house, ‘O’ de Squisito, is yet another testament to her desire to explore new ideas. Propelled by a set of engines, which allow it to glide effortlessly on the water, ‘O’ de Squisito has an elegant, minimalist feel to it. Both, the exterior and interior of the water home, are contemporary in style, offering a visual experience that is new for Dubai. White is the predominant color both on the outside and inside; this and a glass exterior work together, to ensure there is nothing to distract the eye from what Vandaele considers key to the whole experience in the project – the changing view of the tranquil sea.

  While ‘O’ de Squisito would not look out of place among a modern city setting, it is meant to cruise, ideally Dubai’s Creek or the waters between the Jumeirah shoreline and the man-made islands being build alongside it.

  It was the Creek, or rather, a beautiful sunset she saw on it that inspired Vandaele to create the floating home three years ago.

  “I live on the 30^th floor of the Fairmont Hotel, from where I enjoy a great view of the Arabian Sea,” she said. However, while she was lucky to be privy to such a beautiful view, she had no open space, such as a balcony, to enjoy it from, she said.

  One afternoon she was by the Dubai Creek, expecting to meet some friends when the beautiful sunset inspired her with an idea.

  “All of a sudden I was thinking that it would be fantastic if I could enjoy an open space on the water,” she said. Thrilled by this idea, Vandaele started sketching her floating home on a piece of paper.

  “My friends called me, saying they would be late,” she said, explaining that by the time she received the call it no longer mattered to her whether the meeting would be held or not. She was busy working. Vandaele finished the sketch at 9pm. It was completely dark around by then and she had been using a small light attached to her pen to help her see what she drew.

  The following morning the magic of the moment was gone and doubts started to appear, she remembers. Eventually, she decided to drop the idea, deciding that what she had planned could not be made.

  “However, the idea stayed in the back of my mind,” said Vandaele. “Since that night, every time I visited the Creek, I would wonder why not give it a try.”

  Eventually, she got in touch with young UAE architect, Ahmed Ebrahim, now aged 23. At that time Ebrahim had recently graduated from the Amrican University of Sharjah. “He said why not,” Vandaele remembers, and work on the ambitious project started.

  “We were fighting with the engineers about a million things,” said Vandaele. It was also a work in progress, she explains. “We had to rethink many of the features,” she said.

  Air-conditioning was one issue that needed a lot of work and planning. “The generator we had to use is so huge, it was a real challenge to hide it,” said Vandaele, who explained that she anted to make sure visual appeal was not sacrificed in the search for comfort. Her boat simply had to have those two features together.

  “The simpler something appears to be, the more difficult it is to put it together,” said Vandaele, explaining that the home’s minimalist, easy-on-the-eye style was difficult to achieve because it meant hiding so many elements that normally would create a distraction for the eye. An open-plan design evokes a feeling of freedom, while the glass exterior means there is plenty of light in the spacious rooms. The home has two floors with a bedroom, living room and kitchen situated on the top floor.

  The floating home offers all the comforts that any house does. “I wanted it to be used as a house, so the main point for it was to be liveable,” said Vandaele, who even has a vacuum cleaner and a washing machine in her floating home. There is even a computer desk, closed off in a cabinet to keep the space as free of distractions as possible.

  “It is also a smart boat,” sais Vandaele, adding that everything on ‘O’ de Squisito – from the curtains and the 120 lights, to navigation system, the powerful speakers and the mirror de-foggers in the bathroom, can  be operated through a remote control device. The duplex also has a computer system that monitors the boat for rising water and electrical problems. It has been designed to notify Vandaele by text message if a fault has been detected.

  Supervising the construction of the floating home, which is 20 metres long and seven metres wide and has a total height of 8.5 metres, was not an easy job, she said. It took a little over two years to have the boat built and during this time Vandaele worked with at least 40 different suppliers, she said. All 120 lights as well as the fixtures were being specially brought from Belgium, she said. And a top-of-the-range Italian manufacturer, producing only the finest linen, provided the towels and sheets.

  Seeing ‘O’ de Squisito glide effortlessly on the seawaters for the first time was an overwhelming experience, Vandaele said. “The excitement and anxiety of watching my home being put in the water kept me awake for three nights,” she told press on 21 December, when her floating home was first tested. Cheers could be heard across the port as the ship proved stable and glided effortlessly on the water. The boat set sail for Sharjah’s Hamriya Port.

  Potential buyers, offering her millions of Dirhams for the unique home, have already approached Vandaele. However, she is not sure whether she would part ways with her floating home, which she said, costs between Dh3 million and Dh3.5 million.

  “For now I cannot say a definite yes or not,” she said, commenting on whether she might be willing to part ways with her creation if offered the right price. However, one thing is certain, this would not be the last floating concept Vandaele produces. Plans for floating offices and floating hotel getaways are already underway, she said.