Designing Homes to Survive the Next Hurricane Katrina

by Emily Gertz

categories: Activism, Cities, Climate Security, community, DIY, energyefficiency, Solutions

Published August 29, 2009 @ 10:54AM PT

Above: Home of the Nguyen family, rebuilt under the Biloxi Model Home Program. Via MC2 Architects.

The struggles of the city of Biloxi since Hurricane Katrina has been largely overlooked by national media. But despite the devastation caused by the massive storm, the city is home to one of the most progressive rebuilding efforts around.

The Biloxi Model Home Project, a spinoff of Architecture for Humanity, is a multi-tiered effort to help residents of East Biloxi - a low-income, ethnically diverse neighborhood that was hit hard by Katrina -- get financing, design services, materials and labor to rebuild their homes.

I reported on the project's progress last year, for Grist.. Several families that qualified to be part of the program got to pick the design they liked best from entries by several architects. They've gotten assistance with the maze of paperwork and requirements to get the government aid they were entitled to, as well as home loans, and they've contributed sweat equity to the building of their new homes.

The innovative designs -- all available for anyone to use on the Open Architecture Network -- often reference traditional architecture of the Gulf Coast, and aim to come in on a relatively lean budget of around $140,000, or $75 per square foot. As with the Nguyen Family Residence, above, they feature shaded porches, ample shuttered windows, and natural ventilation, which are great for a warm and humid climate. They're designed for high energy-efficiency, so that they'll help their low-income owners reduce utility bills. And they are purposefully laid out so that as the owner's needs and financial abilities change, the home can be easily expanded.

The Biloxi Model Homes also conform to post-Katrina revisions of the area's building code. These include requirements that homes be built high off the ground on stilts, to try and avoid being flooded or swept away in the inevitable severe storms of the future, and to withstand hurricane winds of up to 140 mph.

Why rebuild in a hurricane zone at all? It's "impossible to transplant a neighborhood elsewhere," program director Michael Grote told me. Most of the people of East Biloxi liked their neighborhood and community, and didn't want to leave (never mind being told to leave by outsiders.) Part of the Biloxi Model Home Project's accomplishment is that it's given some people the power to make the stay-or-go decision themselves, and then to "rebuild in a way that's smart."

Rebuilding in place is also environmentally sound. "More than any gizmo, gadget, or foam," Grote told me, "the most sustainable thing we can do is build back where the infrastructure is still there: electricity, water, sewer, streets, roads, schools."

I've come away from reporting on the Biloxi Model Home Project more optimistic about the future. This program proves that we have it in us to respond to more intense storms and floods -- likely unnatural disasters that will happen more frequently in our warming world -- with intelligence, generosity, creativity and compassion.