Make It Float
Images: courtesy the Make It Right Foundation
Among the 13 house designs proposed last year for Brad Pitt’s Make It Right project in New Orleans, perhaps none was more intriguing than Thom Mayne’s idea for a floating home that would act like a glorified raft (tethered to guide posts) in case of flooding. Unfortunately, none of the returning Lower Ninth Ward residents has so far selected Mayne’s design to live in. Which would be a major bummer. Except that the Make It Right folks decided to build it anyway!
The FLOAT House, which was publicly unveiled today and is currently waiting for a resident, is the result of a 20-month collaboration between Mayne’s firm, Morphosis, and graduate students at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design (where Mayne also teaches). The house’s prefabricated chassis was built on UCLA’s campus and then, last July, shipped to New Orleans, where it was joined with the shell and roof components.
Click to view a larger image.
The chassis is the key to FLOAT’s floating ability. Made from polystyrene foam coated in glass fiber–reinforced concrete, it will allow the house to rise vertically on guide posts, securely floating up to twelve feet. The idea is not so much that occupants could remain in the house during a hurricane (that would probably be a bad idea even in this shotgun ark) but that water damage to the house would be greatly minimized and residents could return home quickly.
In addition to its buoyancy, the thousand-square-foot house employs high-performance systems and energy-efficient appliances, collects its own water, and generates its own power through rooftop solar panels; these sustainable moves are expected to earn it LEED Platinum certification.
For more on this intiative, be sure to read “Saint Brad,” Andrew Blum’s excellent 2008 story on Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, the surrounding media circus, and architects giggling like schoolgirls.
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Mayne’s design is indeed a good one. One reason none of the lower ninth ward residents has selected it might be that many have already paid, like the 95 year old mother of NOFFN Deputy Director Pam Broom, all they own to unscrupulous builders who have built for them uninhabitable homes. Bloom claims that there are around 1000 elderly residents whom, like her mother, are out of cash but after 2 years still can not, as she puts it, “return to their corners.” For more information about this tragedy, contact pamela.broom@gmail.com
Comment by Robin Horton — October 7, 2009, @ 7:22 am
Maybe they didn’t select the design because they don’t want to live in a glorified raft. I’ll grant you that it’s an intresting project, but is the design really good if no one wants it?
Comment by Cindy Duffy — October 7, 2009, @ 12:14 pm
Several floating house designs were done by the architecture team at the Mississippi Renewal Forum charrette held in Biloxi just six weeks after Katrina. The big difference between them and Mayne’s design is that they respected New Orleans architecture. Having been in the Lower 9th many times since Katrina, and well remembering the shattered wreckage of the homes that once stood on Tennessee Street where this house now stands, I shudder to see how this house looks like it’s been a bit shattered already. Should houses for returning residents really be taking visual clues from the destruction of their previous houses?
Comment by Steve Mouzon — October 7, 2009, @ 12:34 pm
The raft concept is really cool and should provide a sense of added safety. But the safety also needs a sense of stability and permanence, and rootedness.
This design looks cobbled together, like “found art.” Rather than feeling soothing and stable, it looks edgy and contrary. People who have endured such deep personal and community trauma - for such a long time - may not be drawn to “edginess” for their hearth & home.
This design might be fine for urban hipsters - or short term residents who’d find it “fun”.
Comment by Gwen Drury — October 7, 2009, @ 1:58 pm
@Steve,
Do you really think an architect is that insensitive? To make statements that the Architect designed the house based on the destruction that Katrina caused is both unfounded and ignorant.
@Gwen,
While I love this shack, you are probably right that it is better suited for a younger generation.
Comment by Jon Morschl — October 7, 2009, @ 2:21 pm
Don’t underestimate the older generations. There are some pretty progressive folks out there who would live this cool little house.
Comment by sss — October 8, 2009, @ 5:43 pm
The idea of a floating, if necesary, home is intreging but I agree with previous posts about the sensitivity to the people that are going to live in them. Where any meetings conducted with residences to see what they really need? What they wanted? This seems like a great intellectual/acedemic exercise but lacking community connection. On another note “Saint Brad” give me a break!!
Comment by Sarah Caesar — October 8, 2009, @ 11:15 pm
This might be nice in a different context, but it has a real FEMA trailer aspect to me. No wonder no one wanted one.
Comment by Martin C. Pedersen — October 9, 2009, @ 12:16 pm
The fundamental difference aside (that this is a house intended to float only when flooding occurs) this is hardly a groundbreaking idea. Houseboats have been around for years, and there are many communities of these throughout the nation, including Seattle, Sausalito, and even here in DC.
Comment by Brian — October 9, 2009, @ 1:14 pm