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Once the storm passed, the sight of Punta Gorda may have surprised some people. While it had typical post-hurricane storm debris, downed trees and several flooded streets, a number of homes and buildings appeared largely intact and many showed only minimal damage to their exteriors.
How is it possible that the coastal city wasn’t more devastated by a storm that ranks among the most powerful to ever strike the United States? One major factor, according to some experts, are modern building code
— The Washington Post
While other southwest Florida communities like Fort Myers were devastated, Punta Gorda, a town of about 20,000, was saved thanks to strident code changes enacted in the wake of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Charley twelve years later. “It’s a demonstration that updated building codes... View full entry
“The fact of the matter is that if a tsunami occurs tomorrow, we are going to lose all of our children,” said Andrew Kelly, the superintendent of the North Beach School District, which includes Ocean Shores. Mr. Kelly is one of a growing number of local officials who are calling for a network of elevated buildings and platforms along the Northwest coast that could provide an escape for thousands of people who might otherwise be doomed in the event of a tsunami. — The New York Times
Voters in the Washington state community of Ocean Shores will decide today on a measure that would install a pair of tsunami towers that can hold up to 800 people. Residents in the immediate shoreline region would have only ten minutes to escape potentially 100-foot waves propelled by a quake... View full entry
While experts say the technology and design standards exist to better protect people and buildings from tornadoes, attempts to incorporate those designs into building codes have repeatedly been blocked or curtailed by the building industry, according to public documents and people involved in efforts to tighten the model codes. — The New York Times
Resilient infrastructure in states like Kentucky and Tennessee that are increasingly falling into the crosshairs of deadly tornadoes as a likely result of climate change-produced atmospheric conditions and non-related weather patterns like La Niña is becoming more and more imperative, as... View full entry
Americans have, for generations, prepared themselves for society’s collapse. They built fallout shelters during the Cold War and basement supply caches ahead of Y2K. But in recent years, personalized disaster prep has grown into a multimillion-dollar business, fueled by a seemingly endless stream of new and revamped threats, from climate change to terrorism, cyberattacks and civil unrest. — The New York Times
When one thinks of luxury condos, rural Kansas isn't what typically comes to mind. Then again, the location isn't the only thing unique about developer Larry Hall's 15-story, residential complex sitting underground in a former missile silo. In 2008, Hall purchased the missile launch facility in... View full entry
Irma instilled new urgency to address the islands’ housing problem. “What was an emergency prior to the storm is now a crisis—an utter and complete crisis with regards to the housing for average worker here in Monroe County,” said Mike Laurent, executive director of the Florida Keys Community Land Trust. — citylab.com
The Florida Keys Community Land Trust was developed after Hurricane Irma hit last year to help built new affordable housing, which suffered the most damage on the islands. So far the trust has four new affordable cottages under construction with plans of building 20 more. The new homes have been... View full entry
World-renowned architect Shigeru Ban sprang into action again in a disaster zone by setting up temporary “homes” to give flooding victims here some much-needed privacy.
Ban, members of his Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) and student volunteers used recycled paper tubes and pieces of fabric to create partitions for evacuees in the gymnasium of the Sono Elementary School in the Mabicho district on July 14.
— Asahi Shimbun
Torrential downpours and subsequent floods and mudslides have devastated parts of Western Japan in recent weeks. With over 250 people dead or missing and more than 8 million people under evacuation order, this has reportedly been one of the country's most severe natural disasters in years... View full entry
Through a plethora of over-designed shelters, interventions, and temporary housing prototypes, professional architecture has attempted to pick up on issues of global mass displacement. Despite the endless stream of projects of this nature, little has changed and cots in gymnasiums remain the... View full entry
The AIA has released a revamped version of its Disaster Assistance Handbook, which they claim is “significantly enhanced” and “will serve as a go-to resource for architects, built environments professionals, municipal government officials and emergency managers involved in disaster... View full entry
Although it's unclear when the furnishing/window and door fitting process takes place, one thing is certain: you can now have the basic components of an entire 400 square foot house printed in about a day from the company Apis Cor. Aside from being speedy, the $10,000 printing process is... View full entry
“AbleNook is a modular disaster relief dwelling that you can put together without tools in under two hours,” Verdecia said.
While Shigeru Ban has become the de facto expert in designing quick yet elegant solutions for disaster relief housing, he may have some competition in the form of two University of South Florida architecture students whose "AbleNook" can be assembled in under 120 minutes without any tools. Sean... View full entry
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban is once more jumping into disaster-relief efforts. The cardboard-wielding starchitect traveled to Ecuador earlier this week [...] to provide architectural training and brainpower in the wake of the deadly earthquake April 16 earthquake, which has killed more than 650 people and displaced another 26,000 from their homes. — curbed.com
The Colegio de Arquitectos del Ecuador Provincial de Pichincha issued this statement on its website (Google-translated from the original Spanish text):"The Association of Architects of Ecuador, Pichincha Chapter (CAE-P) and the Pan American Architecture Biennial of Quito, officially announced the... View full entry
As the Nepalese government continues to face criticism for the slow pace of the country’s reconstruction, Nepal’s prime minister Khadga Prasad Oli announced today that the reconstruction of key heritage sites in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur is to finally begin, the Associated Press reports. — The Art Newspaper
A year after the devastating quake, there is some good news in Nepal. As this article notes,The World Monuments Fund (WMF) also announced today that it, in collaboration with American Express, was financing the rebuilding of the 16th-century Char Narayan Temple, which was reduced to rubble by the... View full entry
From masterplans to reconfigure London after the Great Fire of 1666 to contemporary responses to earthquakes and tsunamis, the exhibition considers the evolving relationship between man, architecture and nature and asks whether we are now facing a paradigm shift in how we live and build in the 21st century. — BBC News Magazine
Paul Kerley talked with curator Jes Fernie, about a new exhibition, Creation from Catastrophe, at the Royal Institute of British Architects. View full entry
'There is no one size fits all approach — every region is completely different...' Hurricane Sandy underlined the urgency by ruthlessly exposing New York's structural weaknesses...California also suffered as historic droughts settled in, and the 2014 wave of winter storms terrorized the North, emphasizing that extreme conditions were here to stay and could strike anywhere. This bought the U.S. into line with the global situation. — CNN
More on Archinect:The Hurricane Katrina Cottages: where are they now?Coating the LA reservoir in "shade balls" will save 300M gallons of waterHow the Cascadia earthquake threatens America's coastal NorthwestThe Pragmatics of Adaptating to Sea Level Rise: The Next Wave @ UCLAU.S. Department of HUD... View full entry
