Brad Pitt Unveils Flood-Surviving Floating House

Brad Pitt has been making waves in the green building world lately, so it’s only appropriate that the newest house completed for his Make It Right Foundation project be a floating one. Being revealed today in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, the Float House by Morphosis Architects, goes beyond sustainable design and construction and is built within the context of its environment – it can float.

In case of flooding, the home can literally break away from it’s moorings and rise up up to 12 feet on two guideposts. It won’t float away, but it will act as a raft and provide the family with enough battery power to allow them to survive for up to three days until help arrives.




Thom Mayne, founder of Morphosis and winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, wanted to build a home that could survive through hurricane flooding as well fit in with the surrounding homes. He and his team designed a house that was essentially built on a chassis of polystyrene foam and covered with glass-reinforced concrete.

During hurricane flooding conditions, the home could break away from its electrical lines, gas and plumbing and rise with the flood waters. Anchored to its site by two guideposts the home could sustain 12 foot high flood waters.

While it has never been tested in real life flood conditions, Morphosis conducted extensive computer simulations and modeled it to withstand Hurricane Katrina-like conditions. There is also a battery backup in the home with enough capacity to power crucial appliances for up to three days.
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/10/06/brad-pitt-unveils-floating-house-for-make-it-right-foundation/

Good idea. Wonder how it will actually do in a hurricane? How much will it cost?

If it is cost effective, it would beat a regular house.

having grown up along the Mississippi where we have boathouses that float on the water but are anchored and attached to the shoreline.

In addition, if New Orleans had a lot of these during Katrina and they worked, the poorer wards might not have been so destroyed. Then it wouldn't be so hard to rebuild a neighborhood much to the dismay of developers.

Link:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/08/20/floating.houses/

I applaud the Dutch and Brad Pitt.

If we are going to insist on inhabiting coastal areas (which we will) then we should find some way to do it that makes sense.

More problematic is unpredictable flooding not occuring in flood plains that is the result of bizarre rain events and flash flooding. People in flood plains and coastal ares KNOW they are at risk - many other don't. The recent Atlanta flood points out this issue.

a bit odd looking ..but kewl..

Not that there's anything wrong with a mobile home but I wonder how much this "mobile home" looking house goes for. I watched a program on IFC (Independent Film Channel) about architects building sustainable homes in NO and the neighborhoods they were building in, the folks couldn't afford the first home they built. To top it off, it didn't fit the architecture of the neighborhood.

Good idea though, a floating home.

Which is one of the quintessential New Orleans architectural styles.

But the overhang at the front of the house just screams "mobile home" to me.

But it's very nice.

some of which would sink or get caught in other debris. We have a * ton house floating towards bridges and levees.

Gut reaction not a good idea.

just under the surface. (After Katrina I know of a boat owner who was trying to get his boat out of harms way. It had survived the storm and he was trying to get it to a boat launch that was accessible from both the water and the road. He had to take it out past one of the islands and as he traveled in what was once an open channel, he ran aground. He was stuck on a submerged house and had to be rescued by the coast guard. The boat was ruined. Imagine that call to his insurance company.)

Some floated from their foundations and were lodged against each other to create damns that protected other homes from the surge. (My brothers house took on 3 feet of water because the houses south of him had created a damn that protected his small home from the worst of the waters and debris. Other houses on his street not afforded the protection were gutted and or crushed.

There is no such thing as a hurricane proof (or natural disaster proof) home. The best you can do is construct to try to make your home more resistant to the destructive forces.

Awesome! The house becomes another of many large-scale battering rams! Even if it's tethered so it won't float away, it's certainly not going to withstand entire trees/other houses/vehicles crashing into it. :eyes:

The water doesn't just rush in like a rogue wave, causing the house to break from the gas lines and electric lines.

The water came in fast, and it came in through every crack and crevice in the house. The window seals and door seals. It poured into the house. It pounded against windows and broke windows itself or caused objects in the water to crash through the windows. It filled the house - think of the boat taking in water. It doesn't float well when it is full of water.

I don't read in the description where the house is sealed to prevent the rising water from seeping into the house as it rises in the neighborhood.

Many houses in NOLA stayed on their foundations - they were just full of mud and water.



Edited to add: I've always wanted one of these to anchor to my property with a huge cable or chain.



Then I could escape to it and ride out the storm. (if I were to ever decide to stick around as some did in my neighborhood.)

http://morphopedia.com/projects/float-house

This is an entire page devoted to the Float house with a lot more info.

During hurricane flooding conditions, the home could break away from its electrical lines, gas and plumbing and rise with the flood waters. Anchored to its site by two guideposts the home could sustain 12 foot high flood waters.

I'm sure there are revisions they might make. However, it beats staying in the types of houses they were in.

The house is not sealed in any special way. The water comes in and rises, just as it did normal houses during Katrina.

The house full of water is still a house full of water. It is less likely to move from its foundation but it will still fill with water, which is what homes did during the floods caused by the broken levies during Katrina. Many homes stayed put - they just were full of mud and water for so long (it took days for the water to run off or go anywhere) that they were ruined.

The floating house is not the only issue.

though I do admire everything Pitt has done for New Orleans. It just seems not cost-effective to ask poor people to buy themselves a new house because they can't trust the Army Corps of Engineers.

(or should I say The Netherlands?)

Here's an article from 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6405359.stm

There's a video somewhere online. I don't remember where.