Architects are looking for homes that are resistant to natural disasters – 07/18/2023 – World

Retired software engineer John duSaint recently purchased land near Bishop, California, in a rugged valley east of the Sierra Nevada, USA. This is an area considered at risk for fires, high daytime temperatures and strong winds, as well as heavy snowfall in winter.

But DuSaint isn’t worried about local climate change. That’s because he intends to live in a geodesic dome.

The structure of this dome is almost nine meters high and will be covered with aluminum tiles that reflect heat and are resistant to fire. As it has a smaller surface area than a rectangular house, it is easier to insulate against heat or cold. And it is able to withstand strong winds and blizzards.

“The outside of the dome is basically impenetrable,” DuSaint said.

With increasingly extreme weather conditions, geodesic domes and other resilient home designs are gaining more attention from climate-conscious homebuyers—and from architects and builders.

The trend may begin to dislodge the inertia underlying the US struggle to adapt to the climate crisis. Technologies exist that can protect homes against severe conditions, but these innovations have been slow to catch on in mainstream residential construction, leaving Americans increasingly exposed to weather shocks, experts say.

The result is not only a higher risk of injury or even death, but also financial calamity, with homeowners facing devaluation of their properties, not being able to get insurance on them, or even losing their property—in many cases, the most valuable they have. Furthermore, the emotional and social cost of losing one’s home in natural disasters is just beginning to be understood.

Census data show that in 2022, weather-related disasters forced more than 3.3 million Americans to leave their homes. At least 1.2 million of these people spent a month or more away from their homes, and more than 500,000 never returned, fueling a growing diaspora of climate refugees.

weather the storm

In the atrium of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, volunteers recently finished reassembling “Weatherbreak,” a geodesic dome built more than 70 years ago and briefly used as a residence in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills. It was a cutting-edge project at the time: around 1,000 aluminum brackets bolted together to form a hemisphere 7.6 meters high and 15 meters wide, evoking a large metal igloo.

Now, with the Earth in the process of heating, the structure has gained new relevance.

“We have started to study how our museum can respond to climate change,” said Abeer Saha, the curator who led the dome’s reconstruction. “Geodesic domes have come to our attention as a way in which the past can point to a solution to our housing crisis, in a way that until now has not received due attention,” he added.

The domes are just one example of the innovation efforts being promoted. Homes made of steel and concrete can be more resilient to heat, fires and storms. Even traditional, wooden-framed ones can be built in a way that greatly reduces the chances of being heavily damaged by hurricanes or floods.

But these adaptations can imply costs 10% higher than conventional construction. That extra amount, which is often paid for later thanks to lower repair costs after a disaster, is a problem as most homebuyers don’t know enough about construction to demand higher standards. Builders, for their part, are reluctant to add resiliency, fearing that consumers won’t be willing to pay for elements they don’t understand.

One way to solve this problem would be to tighten the building codes, which are set at the state and local levels. But most places don’t adopt the latest code, if it requires any mandatory building standards.

Some architects and designers are taking the initiative to respond to growing concerns about natural disasters.

Near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on land overlooking the Wareham River, Dana Levy oversees the construction of her home, a veritable fortress. The structure will be built with concrete forms, creating walls capable of withstanding high winds and flying debris, as well as maintaining stable temperatures in the event of a power outage – something unlikely, thanks to solar panels, backup batteries and a generator for emergencies. Roof, doors and windows will be hurricane resistant.

For Levy, a 60-year-old retiree who has worked in renewable energy, the whole point is to make sure he and his wife don’t have to leave the house the next time a major storm hits.

build with steel

In places where the risk of fire is high, some architects are turning to steel. In Boulder, Colorado, Renée del Gaudio designed a home with a steel frame and exterior cladding, creating what she describes as an ignition-resistant cladding.

These decks are made of ironwood, a fire resistant wood. Below and around the house there is a vegetation barrier covered with gravel to prevent the growth of plants that could feed a fire. There is also a cistern with 2,500 gallons of water that can supply hoses in case a fire gets too close to the house.

These elements also increase construction costs by up to 10%, according to the architect. This additional amount could be cut in half by using less expensive materials such as stucco, which would provide a similar level of protection.

But Del Gaudio had reason to use the best materials. She designed the house for her father.

Perhaps no other type of resilient home design inspires as much approval as geodesic domes. In 2005, Hurricane Rita devastated Pecan Island, a small community in southwestern Louisiana, destroying most of the area’s few hundred homes.

Joel Veazey’s house, a 214-square-meter dome, was not one of them. He just missed a few tiles.

“People came to my house apologizing to me, saying, ‘We made fun of you because of the way your house looked. We shouldn’t have done that. Yours is still here, ours are gone,'” said Veazey, a retired oilman. .

Max Bégué lost his home in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. In 2008, he built a dome on the same lot where he lives, which has survived every storm since then, including Hurricane Ida in 2021.

There are two elements that give domes their ability to withstand winds. To begin with, they are made up of small triangles, capable of withstanding more load than other shapes.

The shape of the dome also causes winds to circulate around the structure, depriving them of a flat surface on which to exert force.

“The dome resists the wind,” said Bégué, a racehorse veterinarian. “It wobbles a little bit, more than I’d like. But I think that’s part of its strength.”