The increasing frequency of 100-year storms is causing homeowners to place a greater emphasis on disaster-proof design in both new construction and existing homes, Fast Company reports. Homeowners in storm-prone areas wary of the damage winds, rains, floods, and related weather can have on homes are more commonly thinking proactively and preparing their homes for such weather.
“Why not spend a little bit to design a house that’s going to last for generations?” as Boyce Thompson, author of Designing for Disaster, put it in a recent interview. “That used to be the goal, right? You buy a beautiful house, it would stay in the family for generations. But now with the threat of 100-year storms occurring more frequently than ever, you have to take extra precautions.”
In fact, some argue it’s time to get rid of the idea of “100-year storms” completely. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a home that sits in a “100-year storm” floodplain actually has a 26% chance of being flooded within 30 years. However, the adoption of more stringent building codes has been slow, in part because industry groups tend to fight any policy that could make construction more expensive. While some architecture firms are beginning to specialize in particular aspects of resilience, like flooding, Thompson says it was usually the clients who requested the specialized engineering features.
Research shows that it will be increasingly difficult to find locations in America that aren’t in the path of devastating climate change-related disasters. Yet the homes featured represent a vanishingly small segment of the real estate market; the number of homeowners who can afford to commission their own homes—much less pay for innovative resilience features—is tiny. The AIA estimates that just 2% of all homes in the U.S. are designed by architects at all. The number of those that are focused on resilience is even smaller.
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