"Bamboo could play a vital role in the future civil engineering. It could be the future steel which could safeguard anyone from the natural calamities such as earthquakes."
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http://www.greenpacks.org/2013/04/17/bamboo-houses-to-tackle-flash-floods/#comment-267935
Bamboo Houses to Tackle Flash Floods
When natural calamities strike, people are rendered homeless. Keeping them safe when such mishaps happen is not possible unless they could afford homes that could withstand the brawling forces of nature.
Many projects have looked at architecture design choices to deal with building costs and durability. Flood prone locales should need homes that can float on the gushing water and should bear the sheer velocities of the flash floods.
For that, many of the projects all around the world have adopted light weight foundation with stilts on the house so that they can be always ready for such catastrophic conditions.
Vietnam-based design firm H&P Architects has a developed a prototype that can be brave critical flood situations and at the same can be built affordably. The recurring deluges in the Southeast Asia made them to come up with their prototype.
They put used oil drums on the base of the house and pillared them with steel piles for allotting free movement while floating. The whole structure is made up of bamboo with traditional thatched roof.
During the time of disaster, the whole house can be enclosed like a protected cage. H&P’s design proves comfortable living for families of six in their basic units. The space can be upgraded for 8 members with expansion. They are looking for the production version to cost under $2000 and could be easy for villagers to construct their own houses.
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Related article:
Houses made of bamboo, stand up to earthquakes: http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/06/03/houses-made-of-bamboo-stand-up-to-earthquakes/
Houses made of bamboo, stand up to earthquakes
Although bamboo is not a modern material for structures, often considered to be poor man’s timber, it is one of the most flexible and light materials to build houses. Though there are sophisticated materials available on the market, bamboo isby far the best that would be able to withstand an earthquake.
Around 70-percent of the people in Bangladesh live in bamboo houses because they are easy to build and because the simple structure plays a vital role in safeguarding people’s lives in case of natural calamities.
Studies have shown that only 60-70 bamboo trees are required to build 1,000 houses whereas nearly 600 trees would have been destroyed to build the same houses using timber. Bamboo provides pillars, walls, window frames, rafters, room separators, ceilings and roofs.
Because of its light weight and rubber like properties, the bamboo houses can withstand 7+ ((Richter scale) magnitude earthquakes. The 30 houses that survived the earthquake in Costa Rica (7.6) stand as evidence. People in the Yunnan Province in China still prefer to live in bamboo houses since the officials encouraged them to built such infrastructures and homes.
Bamboo could play a vital role in the future civil engineering. It could be the future steel which could safeguard anyone from the natural calamities such as earthquakes.
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More: http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/06/03/houses-made-of-bamboo-stand-up-to-earthquakes/
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More: http://www.greenpacks.org/2008/06/03/houses-made-of-bamboo-stand-up-to-earthquakes/
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