Subject: Re: please help with general design concepts for hurrican/food resistant houses

From: James Crowell <[email-masked]>
Date: 21 Sep 1996 21:06:17 GMT

In reply to your request for a building system to handle high winds and 
heavy water, I have patented, lab tested, and field tested (including a 
200 mph typhoon in Guam) a construction system using plastic that can 
handle these conditions.  We have dropped a bowling ball from two 
stories causing only a temporary dent (the material has full memory).  
The material has passed the Florida flying 2X4 test.  Additionally, it 
provides lower energy and maintenance bills than traditional 
construction.  My clients describe it as "living year round in Hawaii". 
We are just now preparing to take it internationally.

As for your ending comment about cost, we are cost-competitive with 
conventional construction.  However, as Mike Fletcher commented, what are 
your real conditions?  I know of no area that has hurricanes and floods 
every ten days.  It does not sound like the best place to build.

List your conditions a little better, and we will try to help you.

Sincerely,

James Crowell
President
PolyTech Systems, Inc.

---

From: [email-masked] (Mike C. Fletcher)
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 09:57:52 GMT

If you're talking _continuous_ effects of this nature, you would
almost certainly have to use a nature-imitating form.  In particular,
if you were to scrape down to bedrock, then build up from it with
large fused stone to create an island of bedrock which placed the
entire living area say 15 feet above the earth, with the rock built
right around the house in a low slope, you should be able to handle
continuous effects of this type.
Since it's not likely you'd be asking the question in a hilly area,
I've assumed you're talking about a lowland area where there are no
bedrock intrusions.  If there are, they'd be quite nice.  You'd still
need to go very deep though, because with those volumes of water every
10 days, you've be looking at building in a river.
Secondary considerations would be providing power and potable water
>from  within the island mass.  You would also want to look at
reinforcing the roof to acomodate lift and to be constructed as a
single, heavy piece which does not attempt to alter the general shape
of the rock hill.  As for making this thing interesting, you can
create something that looks like its an ancient building carved out of
the rock, with an open courtyard (not ajacent to the house) or two for
living between the storms.  You can play with all sorts of cthonics
and snake images, death, rebirth, cave paintings in sacred areas of
the builidings, the whole shebang. You might also consider the passion
of the storm, and maybe make a "storm-feeler's" roost, a place where a
person can go to feel the fury of the storm.  Incidentally, these
buildings would also have decent thermal capacities, and would adapt
well to multi-unit dwellings.  You would likely build the rock islands
out of scrap concrete from demolitions embedded in a new-concrete
matrix, facing the interior with tile or the like to allow easy
cleanup when the waters rise higher than you've allowed for... sheesh,
words are so inadequate to express designs.

Yes: I do realise that this is an enourmous and expensive way to deal
with the problem, but I think it has a brutal elegance in the way it
deals with habitation, returning as it does to the roots of shelter,
before even architecture, where we could find shelter within the earth
itself.

It's an interesting problem, I may just sketch out a few ideas while
I'm working here.  One seldom gets to do fantastic architecture.  PS,
just out of curiosity, is this a project for another planet, a
doomsday future or fantasy scenario, or is there some part of the
world currently experiencing sub-fortnightly catastropies?

Cheers, and remember, they're just thoughts!
Mike Fletcher

______________________________
M i k e   C .  F l e t c h e r
  [email-masked]
______________________________
Design, Consultation, Training

---

From: [email-masked] (John Milton)
Date: 22 Sep 1996 21:49:06 GMT

Mastermind ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I'm looking for any and all comments/concepts on a house/building that
: could standup to a hurrican (175+ mph winds and thrown objects) and
: floods (10+ ft of water moving at 30+ mph) in a continuous fashion.(once
: every 10 days) 
<Snip>

If you really do expect to see that kind of frequent flooding why
not build your dwelling on a barge, or a series of barges. These
could be simple boxes  welded up out steel plate with
appropriate internal bulkheads to the size required. When the
flood comes your house "Rises to the occasion" The only problem
that remains is to prevent the thing from drifting away. Dig decent sized 
holes, several cubic yards in volume, fill with concrete and rebar with 
heavy chain embedded to make "anchors". I suspect that if you did it right 
anything short of a direct hit by a tornado would not be a cause for worry.
In fact if you really wanted to lower your disater insurance premium I 
could imagine a system of at least 3 anchors and some "ground tackle" 
which would let you snub the thing down so that even this level of 
discomfort might be survived. The question is of course: Where on 
earth gets this kind of weather and why would you want to live there?   

--