Our first assignment this week was to post a blog about my thoughts and directions regarding the research paper. As many of you heard me say in class, I would like to do some research on building a "movable" house with recyclable materials (trash, things found in a landfill, etc.). The coast (on the ocean side of the cape) is eroding away - anywhere between 3.5 feet and 5.8 feet per year. Essentially the cape is getting smaller year by year.
Photo: (from boston.com)Chatham Break - Comparison from July to August 2007 - Erosion after major storm is evident.
Photo: (from wickedlocal.com)
Houses on the outer beach are in danger of being demolished by the sea.
My concern is that houses are being built along the coastline, then years later, fall into the ocean. Is there a way to build a house that can be moved back from the coastline as it erodes away? Can this house be constructed of materials that we deem as trash - instead of filling our landfills, lets use those unwanted materials to build something new. Perhaps these houses could be constructed at a lower cost (because the materials are inexpensive) so that a person in any income bracket could afford to purchase one, not just the elite, upper class community.
9 comments:
While it may not address either of your two components of recyclable materials or economic equality, we certainly do have the engineering capability for moving beach houses. Check out this picture that I snapped on vacation a couple of years ago at NC's Outer Banks, near Hatteras. They were moving the house back further inland, and it just amazed me (and made me laugh) at the same time.
Nevermind, it won't let me post the picture. But it really is pretty impressive that we have the engineering capability to move houses, light houses, etc.
Okay, Singleton as always I've got your back, let me toss this out: I am a touch concerned you may be headed in two distinct directions, that in the end is going to cause you to have to produce 25 pages to explain it. You really have two things going on here.
1. Creation of a home from purely recycled materials. A noble study, for sure, but maybe that has been covered extensively in the past. I don't remember who I was talking to, maybe it was you, maybe it was my imaginary friend "Billy" but this is evoking images of the Cuban shanties we see that are built of corrugated metal, recycled lumber and plywood, and what ever else is available. Now I think this could be a fascinating study to apply to indigenous Cape Cod trash - for the lack of a better term. I don't know, I'm thinking crushed sea shell insulation, "bricks" or wall panels filled with sand..who knows, but if you are going to go that way, why not make it specific to your locale? You have a whole host of construction details, means and methods to consider here just for this topic.
2. How to construct a "mobile" home that doesn't look like a double wide trailer. You just introduced a whole other pile of problems to the above scenario to consider now. What are the typical foundations for houses on the cape? Piles, I'm guessing, or deep basements. Short of actually putting something on wheels, are you thinking the whole mobility thing comes from literally dismantling the structure and rebuilding it 15' up the shore?
Actually the whole notion of dismantling is pretty interesting concept to dovetail with your comment "so that a person in any income bracket could afford to purchase one". Maybe these houses are a literal kit of parts that anyone can build, thus cutting out the need for a homebuilder, further reducing the cost. See there, I just added 15 more pages to your paper.
Hope that helps, and I'm sure it didn't....
have you been in the ocean since you got home? its snowing here, i can't imagine going anywhere near water right now!!
I want to respond to eric's comments:
1. I don't think the idea of a recycled house has really been studied that much. There are so many options and no standards. Its still a challenge simply to recycle used construction materials. I think there is a huge untapped market for collecting these items. Perhaps a program like that is part of your thesis where you collect and distribute the materials.
here's a link to the sf scrap house made entirely of reused materials: http://www.scraphouse.org/Gallery
2. Moving the house. Okay, here I agree with eric, this is hard. Considering that the foundation is one of the most expensive items of the home, could you establish a system of trench footers that allowed the house to be shoved back and all it did was sit on top of them? that would affect all the utilities but how do trailers deal with that? as weird as it sounds, maybe there is something to be learned from there.
3. I think affordability is a third idea not contingent on the other two. I'm guessing at the cape, land prices are the greatest cost of a project. There are, however, some studies being done on "modular" homes that allow a family to buy rooms as they need them and add on. then they can sell them back later when they no longer need it. I think i read about that in Fine Homebuilding but I can't remember.
I think you've got several really cool ideas here that will sort themselves out as you work on it!
Very interesting stuff here. I've put much thought into this issue myself with the exception of using recycled materials. I think combining the three items might be a little hard unless it was a system. A machine more than a home. I think it is entirely possible but the proof of how well it would work would be in the design, in particular how that house meets the ground. If this unit could be site specific it would help a ton, pretty fun stuff. Oh and the picture you have on the blog, man that looks dangerous. Maybe we should research why people put themselves in potentially life threatening areas on the earth to dwell?
Michelle, I think your idea of a movable house is awesome and can be incorporated into your recyclable materials idea. This is most likely the engineer in me talking, but just the idea of having a movable house just like everything else in our lives is pretty cool.
I have attached a link to a movie that I think you will find very interesting. (oddly enough my dad emailed this to me while I was gone. It is wild and starts to show just how far imagination can take you.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b694exl_oZo
Maybe instead of having a house that you must uproot and move away from encroaching waters, you have a system that slowly creeps away from or towards the water depending on the current erosion.
Although the “animals” in the video are not exactly what you are looking for, I think a form of green energy such as wind or solar power could slowly move an enourmous house inches or feet over the course of a month to accomplish this goal.
Also, in spite of any scoffers, good ideas usually come from places where the technology doesn’t exist and the idea is currently impossible. Your solution could drive inventions or innovations in this area that would make it possible sooner than expected.
Tim,
That video was amazing! Thank you for sharing it with me!
It has really given me some new ideas to consider! (Harnessing the power of the wind to assist with movement.)
Thanks again!
These are all good ideas, but don't solve the problem until you understand the problem. Name the elements separately:
1) people want to live near the coast
2) coastal property is expensive
3) coastlines are eroding away
4) homeowners don't know what to do
and so on. If a possible solution comes to mind, treat it as additional elements of the problem. For instance, if you think of creating scrap homes that can wash away with the storms, then one problem is that you're adding material to something that ought to be removed anyway, and a second problem is that places matter to people and having your house washed away (even if it's intended to do so) is traumatic.
I admire your optimism. Allow me to be your dark balance for a little while longer. Don't solve anything yet.
Hi Michael, oops I mean Michelle ;)
I think that you have a great project going! You should look into the Living Home. If you google it there should be some info on the the inhabit.com website. There is a pic of one on my studio blog for the "living" component of Meaningful Architecture. They are rather remarkable and may give you some ideas to further your research.
miss you too, little girl!!
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