Eco-Friendly Floating House Built in New Orleans
by Allie Comeau on October 9, 2009 
2 comments
How do you build a safe home in an area prone to flooding? You make the home float.
At least that’s the solution Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation has come up with for rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Make It Right’s latest design, the Float House, becomes a giant raft in the event of a flood, rising up to twelve feet while remaining anchored to the ground by guide posts.
The Float House is supposed to also be eco-friendly, (as are all Brad Pitt’s New Orleans projects) though TreeHugger raises a question about the use of polystrene, one of the building materials. In any event, the home is eco-friendly in the sense that it will save the life of the homeowner, the environment of the homeowner and also save on waste and re-building costs in the future should another Hurricane Katrina strike. It’s also a low-cost design.
Another benefit of the design by Morphosis Architects is that the Float House is built low to the ground unlike homes on stilts so they are perfect for the elderly and disabled. The low design also encourages the return of the “front porch culture” of the Lower Ninth Ward.
In the event of a flood, the home’s electric and gas systems would automatically shut off and the Float House would operate on back-up battery power for 3 days. All in all, a pretty good idea in my opinion.
What do you think of the Float House design? Would you feel safe in it?
October 9th, 2009 @ 6:43 pm
Very cool. I work for a building department in a rural county, and we are nowhere near a coastal area, but we have already reviewed 91 projects this year for construction of some type in flood-prone areas, and that’s just from rivers and streams. People are looking for new places to build, and that seems to be one place they are looking. There are a number of issues that come to mind with this type of construction, but a house of this type would be required to be completely engineered by a licensed engineer, so I’m sure these would be taken care of. I am very interested in the subject of Green Building, and be assured that the International Code Council takes this very seriously. However, we have to put people’s safety first, and we can incorporate green technologies as they are able to also meet our needs for human safety. This will be a phase-in as the technology grows, but things are going that direction. Keep the pressure on, but do it in a reasonable way that puts human safety first.
October 12th, 2009 @ 11:14 am
http://www.marlonblackwell.com/work/residential/8/
Here is a cool Hurricane-Pruf House. The Porch Dog. Check out all of Marlon Blackwell’s designs featured on the website. Interesting body of work.
Esp. the Keenan Tower House. Not sure I would want to live there, but it sure is interesting.