AMPHIBIOUS ARCHITECTURE: GO WITH THE FLOW!

-MISHTI MADAN

From New York to Shanghai, coastal cities around the world are at risk from rising sea levels and unpredictable storm surges. But rather than simply building higher seawalls to hold back floodwaters, many builders and urban planners are turning to floating and amphibious architecture — and finding ways to adapt buildings to this new reality.


Amphibious architecture refers to an alternative flood mitigation strategy that allows an otherwise-ordinary structure to float on the surface of rising floodwater rather than succumb to inundation. An amphibious foundation retains a home's connection to the ground by resting firmly on the earth under usual circumstances, yet it allows a house to float as high as necessary when flooding occurs. A buoyancy system beneath the house displaces water to provide flotation as needed, and a vertical guidance system allows the rising and falling house to return to exactly the same place upon descent. Amphibious architecture is a flood mitigation strategy that works in synchrony with a flood prone region's natural cycles of flooding, rather than attempting to obstruct them.

HOW AMPHIBIOUS FOUNDATION WORKS?

Amphibious construction may also refer to one of several "hybrid" conditions. One such is where the weight of a structure is partially supported by both land and water simultaneously, i.e., where gravity loads are shared by a buoyant substructure and structural elements bearing directly on the solid ground below the water. Another situation is where a mechanical system such as jacks or hydraulic pumps is used to elevate the structure temporarily. A third condition is a "wet proofing" strategy, whereby residents occupy the first floor during dry seasons and move to an upper storey during periods of flooding.

DETAILING

An amphibious foundation retains a home’s connection to the ground by resting firmly on the earth under usual circumstances, yet it allows a house to float as high as necessary when flooding occurs. A buoyancy system beneath the house displaces water to provide flotation as needed, and a vertical guidance system allows the rising and falling house to return to exactly the same place upon descent. 


Amphibious construction is suitable for new buildings or as a retrofit to an existing structure. The Buoyant Foundation Project focuses on retrofit applications. 

BUOYANT FOUNDATION PROJECT:SOLUTION TO HURRICANE KATRINA 2005

How It Works

It basically works like a floating dock. A steel frame that holds the flotation blocks is attached to the underside of the house. Four vertical guidance posts are installed not far from the corners of the house. Utility lines have either self-sealing ‘breakaway’ connections or long, coiled ‘umbilical’ lines. When flooding occurs, the flotation blocks lift the house and the vertical guidance posts resist any lateral forces from wind and/or flowing water. 

CLICK ON THE VIDEO ABOVE TO KNOW HOW IT WORKS!

The major advantage is that the residents don’t have to bear a huge loss. House remains low to ground except during a flood. It just temporarily elevates to exactly the level required to stay above water. Neighborhood retains original character. It is visually unobtrusive if vertical guidance system is installed below ground. Thus, Buoyant foundation alleviates problems of subsidence and rising sea level, resulting into less susceptible to hurricane wind damage and less expensive than permanent static elevation.


Amphibious foundations are a proven, low-cost, low-impact flood protection strategy that can increase a flood-prone community's resilience in the face of disaster. Why fight floodwater when you can float on it?



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  ARTICLE REVIEW: EMBODIED ENERGY DEMYSTIFIED Eduardo Souza, "Embodied Energy in Building Materials: What it is and How to Calculate It", August 2021, Reviewed by Mishti Madan The article starts with how building construction industry consumes a large amount of resources and energy which results into deterioration of the near future. The author talks about how buildings are responsible for upto 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions. In the last two decades, many researchers have studied the embodied energy of buildings and published their findings. In this study, in order to provide a better understanding of the field as a whole, a bibliometric approach is applied to create a knowledge map and discover more information about the topic. The article provides an overview of literature on embodied energy and how is it calculated. The author defines the term- Embodied Energy as sum impact of all greenhouse gas emissions attributed to a material during its life cycle. This cycl...
Read more
Image
  INVISIBLE ARCHITECTURE   -MISHTI MADAN The construction of buildings has undergone several stages along history. From the Prehistory primitive structures to the 20th century skyscrapers, there has been several ways to project,  design  and build.   When climatic change has turned into a reality and it has arisen the awareness that we need to care for the planet, architects all over the world have leapt into the creation of sustainable, environmentally  friendly  and energy-saving buildings. In its outdoor design, these sustainable buildings look for a complete integration with the landscape, reducing visual pollution to the minimum. However, to maximize these buildings’ functionality becomes a priority, creating workspaces that stir the employee’s creativity and production through an inspiring design. This is what it is known as invisible architecture.   ” Buildings  become invisible for city inhabitants. They not only blend with ...
Read more