UCLA professor designs a floating house

on Wednesday,October 07,2009 14:10

When Brad Pitt''s Make It Right Foundation set out to help the people of New Orleans'' lower ninth ward recover from the ravages of hurricane Katrina, its intention was to create 150 affordable, energy conserving and storm resistant homes - and thanks to UCLA architecture professor, Thom Mayne, the first floating house permitted in the U.S. is now available for mass production.

Pooling resources from his own company, Morphosis Architects, and several graduate students in the UCLA Architecture and Design program, Maynes team''s design is a new spin on the traditional raised "shotgun" house that is so common in the southern U.S. and features a chassis-like base which acts as a raft allowing the structure to rise with water levels up to 12 feet on guide posts.

"Our students were thrilled to have the opportunity that this unique project afforded to apply their research and design to a real world problem - building affordable, sustainable housing for communities afflicted by flooding," declared Hitoshi Abe, Chair of the Architecture and urban Design program in an interview with Reed Business information.

The floating house was designed as a scalable prototype, allowing it to be easily mass produced and modified to better suit the needs of any at-risk community.