5 Amphibious Houses Built to Survive the Coming Floods
In case you haven’t heard by now, continued climate change means we’ll soon be living in a very wet world.
A few months ago, the Federal Emergency Management Agency released a report that said rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather will lead to a 45 percent increase in the areas of the U.S. at risk for floods by 2100. More recently, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), found that “that sea level could rise by more than three feet by the end of the century if carbon emissions keep growing at a runaway pace,” bringing average global flood losses to $60 to $63 billion per year by 2050.
Since more Hurricane Sandys are almost definitely in our future, many designers are exploring “amphibious” design concepts for a world that’s partially underwater. The way we’ve built homes and office buildings for the past 100 years isn’t going to cut it. We need structures that can respond to quickly changing weather in a way that will save loves and reduce property damages.
In case you thought the words “amphibious” and “house” were mutually exclusive, we’ve rounded up five of the most promising of these flood-proof designs for your consideration:
House On The Water
As the name implies, this is a house designed to spend its life in the water. This self-sufficient 2 family home features a cantilevered design that includes an integrated floating dock (which rises and falls with tide levels), desalination water treatment system and technologies that harvest both tidal and solar energy. According to Forbes, and unlike others mentioned in the list so far, this house actually exists!
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/5-amphibious-houses-built-to-survive-the-coming-floods.html#ixzz2dGgkxJaz
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