Inhabitat Staging » ANNIVERSARY OF KATRINA: Designing for disaster

August 29, 2006

ANNIVERSARY OF KATRINA: Designing for disaster

Hurricane Katrina, Disaster relief, Katrina Cottage, Flood-resistant housing, hurrican resistant housing

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and to make sure that people don’t forget it about the massive devastation that affected so many people on the Gulf Coast, we are devoting this week to thinking about ways to improve home and landscape design so that something like this never happens again.

Despite the social and political factors involved in last years disaster, we can’t help but think that if the urban landscape and individual houses had been better designed, we never would have had such a massive problem in the first place. There are many design solutions to tackle the problems of hurricanes, flooding, and displacement, and we’ve spent the last year covering as many of them as we could: hurricane-resistant houses, flood-resistant houses, rebuilding competitions, and temporary shelter for people displaced by Hurrican Katrina. In case you missed any of it, here’s a recap:

Housing Solutions:

+ Katrina Cottages
+ Hurricane resistant domes
+ Flood-resistant housing

Design Competitions & Rebuilding Efforts:

+ Gulf Coast Model Home Program
+ Designing the Future of New Orleans
+ Newer Orleans Competition

Core 77 also has a great article called Surviving the Flood which focuses on water-proof design exhibited in the Rotterdam Biennial.

Please write in and give your thoughts if you have any ideas, opinions or suggestions about how to improve the current state of affairs in New Orleans, and how to prevent future disasters…

Dome housing, monolithic domes, hurricane resistant housing, disaster-proof houses, storm-proof shelter

4 Responses to “ANNIVERSARY OF KATRINA: Designing for disaster”

Andreas Paulsen Says:

August 29th, 2006 at 3:28 pm

We can’t really do anything about the weather, but… A worldwide Design Competition for house design for the area and other area’s that are in the path of “bad weather”. New Orleans could be the Grand Show for this. The internet is the medium.
I participated in the design competition for the “Ground Zero” Memorial, didn’t win, but I participated. How may would participate in the “Katrina Home Show” in New Orleans?? Ask the NYTimes and The International Harold Tribune for Space plus use this site to ad and expand the exposure. Why Not??
Andreas

patti Says:

October 21st, 2006 at 4:37 pm

Um. Why don’t they just build the city somewhere else?

Inhabitat » TOP 10 GREEN DESIGN OF 2006 Says:

December 31st, 2006 at 5:11 pm

[…] 2. HURRICANE KATRINA’S AFTERMATH In the wake of such a large-scale and devastating natural disaster, we’ve seen designers respond to Hurricane Katrina through a variety of inspiring projects, initiatives, and competitions. From the New Urbanists’ $35,000 Katrina Cottage to a slew of design competitions including Global Green’s GreeNOLA initiative and Architectural Record’s Designing the Future of New Orleans competition, designers, architects, and non-profits have joined forces to produce some truly innovative and humanitarian projects. […]

Inhabitat » KATRINA RECOVERY SPURS MODULAR BUILDING Says:

January 6th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

[…] Its unfortunate that it takes a disaster like Hurricane Katrina to convince people of the efficiency of modular building. Nevertheless, that is what seems to be happening in the gulf coast right now - as no other form of traditional stick building seems to be up to the crucial task of quickly rebuilding devasted homes and helping victims get their lives back together. Of the thousands of homes damaged and destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, only a fraction have been replaced. […]

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