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AMPHIBIOUS ARCHITECTURE: A STRATEGY FOR FLO OD-RESILIENT HOUSING

SITE PLAN

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

‘PHIBIOUS FARNSWORTH BEFORE AND DURING FLOODING

Amphibious architecture refers to an alternative flood mitigation and climate change adaptation strategy that allows an otherwise ordinary structure to float on the surface of rising floodwater. An amphibious foundation retains a home’s connection to the ground by resting firmly on the earth, yet it allows the house to float as high as necessary when flooding occurs. A buoyancy system beneath the house displaces floodwater; a ver-tical guidance system allows the rising and falling house to return to exactly the same place upon de-scent. Amphibious construction is suitable for new and existing con-struction; the Buoyant Foundation Project focuses on retrofit applica-tions for existing homes.How It WorksA steel frame holds the flotation blocks to the underside of the house, an assembly that functions like a floating dock. Four vertical guidance posts are installed, in addition to utility lines that have self-sealing ‘breakaway’ connec-tions or long, coiled ‘umbilical’ lines. When flooding occurs, the flotation blocks lift the house and the vertical guidance posts resist any lateral forces from wind and/or flowing water.

The lake Old River was once part of the course of the Mississippi River. It remains connected to the Mississippi at its lower end, and thus the community settled on its west bank lies outside the Mississippi River levee system. Old River’s water level rises and falls with the seasonal flooding of the Mississippi. In this remote location, local residents devised the ingenious amphibious foun-dation system that has kept their homes dry for as long as four decades and is the inspiration for the Buoyant Foundation Project’s basic design. This system works in synchrony with a region’s natural cycles of flooding, rather than attempting to ob-struct or control them. Advantages- House remains on ground surface except when flooding is present- Temporarily elevates house to the exact height required- Alleviates problems of rising sea level and land subsidence- Less expensive than permanent static elevation- Less susceptible to hurricane wind dam-age- Visually unobtrusive if vertical guidance system is telescopic- Neighbourhood retains original character

Leeville is located in LaFourche Parish in south Louisiana, along Bayou La-Fourche, outside the levee system. It is a connection point between Golden Mead-ow, the last town behind the levee sys-tem, and Port Fourchon, the largest oil port in the US. Recent reconstruction of Louisiana Highway 1, which used to con-nect Golden Meadow, Leeville and Port Fouchon, has bypassed Leeville. This unfortunate situation makes Leeville an isolated “sacrificial zone”, an area that has been written off as not worth pro-tecting from increasingly severe floods. The residents of Leeville are mostly fisherman or workers in the oil industry. With their land disappearing, and now cut off from major transportation routes, finding a strategy to save their homes has become an urgent priority. Amphib-ious retrofits of existing housing would be an economical and effective way to save the houses in Leeville. A buoyant foundation could respond to the natural cycles of flooding and accommodate rising sea levels. It is also considerably less expensive than permanent static elevation. This adaptive strategy would allow the residents of Leeville to keep their homes intact and reduce the com-munity’s vulnerability to flooding.

The ‘Phibious Farnsworth project in-troduces an amphibious foundation system to raise the Farnsworth House by flotation in extreme flood scenarios, and then lower it to its original position as the water recedes. This entirely pas-sive strategy combines appropriate, re-silient technologies with a sensitivity to preserving this valuable cultural asset. “Floating slabs” are already a part of the Farnsworth House’s tectonic vocabulary. The fully below-grade retrofit installation ensures that the outward appearance remains visually unaltered. The project offers an alternative to the costly resto-ration that is required after each flood.The strategy replaces the house’s con-ventional static concrete pylons with sleeves that accommodate sliding ver-tical guidance posts. These posts are extensions of the house’s existing wide-flange columns, reaching 13-15 feet below the surface of the ground. A steel subframe installed just below the ground surface supports a matrix of buoyancy blocks. When flooding occurs, the buoyancy blocks displace water to lift the house. Utilities may be accommodated by “um-bilical” and “breakaway” connections as described in the first panel.

PROTOTYPE EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

EXISTING CONDITIONS AT CAMP MADELYN

LEEVILLE LOCATION IN LOUISIANA HOUSE LOCATION, LEEVILLEDURING A FLOOD

BUOYANT HOME AFTER A FLOOD

AN UNUSUAL VERTICAL GUIDANCE SYSTEM

FLOODING AT OLD RIVER LANDING

THE BUOYANT FOUNDATION PROJECTWWW.BUOYANTFOUNDATION.ORG

SCHEMATIC ELEVATION OF BUOYANTFOUNDATION RETROFIT

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC (NOTE BELOW-GROUND TELESCOPING VERTICAL GUIDANCE POSTS)

TESTING THE PROTOTYPE AT LSU AMPHIBIOUS VS PERMANENT STATIC ELEVATION

LOUISIANA FISHING CAMPSOLD RIVER LANDING, LOUISIANA, USA

SAVING A “SACRIFICIAL ZONE”LEEVILLE, LOUISIANA, USA

‘PHIBIOUS FARNSWORTHPLANO, ILLINOIS, USA

Amphibious construction is an adaptive flood risk reduction strategy that works in synchrony with natural cycles of flooding to reduce the hazard vulnerability of flood-prone regions and increase their long-term disaster resilience.

In rural areas of south Louisiana, there have been clusters of amphibious housing functioning reliably for more than forty years. Old River Landing in Pointe Coupee Parish is one such location.

Louisiana is rapidly losing ground, literally. The wetland along its coastline is disappearing at a rate of 16.57 square miles per year, which is equal to losing the area of a football field per hour. The town of Leeville is at risk of being completely wiped off the map.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House is an iconic example of modernist domestic architecture. Originally designed in accordance with the projected 100-year flood depth, the Farnsworth House has increasingly suffered flood damage from the adjacent Fox River.

RENDER OF AMPHIBIATED FARNSWORTH HOUSE IN FLOOD CONDITIONSPERFORMANCE OF AN AMPHIBIOUS HOUSE DURING FLOODING, OLD RIVER LANDING, LOUISIANARENDER OF A NEW ORLEANS SHOTGUN HOUSE WITH AN AMPHBIOUS RETROFIT RENDER OF AMPHIBIATED CAMP MADELYN, LEEVILLE, LOUISIANA

Dr. Elizabeth English and UWSA Student Research Team || www.buoyantfoundation.org || University of Waterloo School of Architecture, Ontario ||