Catherine Rusoff
Across the country, home construction and architecture are changing to keep up hurricanes and other severe storms.
This year, the Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be busy, with up to 25 named storms and up to seven turning into major hurricanes.
Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida in September 2022. The Category 4 storm killed 150 people and caused US$ 112 billion in damage, but amid the devastation, Fort Myers’ Luminary Hotel lost just one letter on the sign bearing its name. Architect Jonathan Rae said the building’s “purposefully simple” design helped keep it standing.
“There are no complicated geometries, no alcoves, no recesses,” Rae explained. “All of these places are opportunities for wind forces to build up and create additional stresses on the building.”
The first floor of the hotel is 4.5 meters above ground level, which prevented flooding inside. Backup generators are located on the second floor of the building, so they were able to keep the hotel running. A slight curvature in the structure also adds resistance, according to engineer Amir Aghajani.
CBS Saturday Morning
No building can be hurricane proof, but hurricane resilience is an achievable goal, Aghajani explained. This type of construction can be expensive, but it can help you avoid paying for repairs later.
“I like to think of it as invest now or pay later,” Aghajani said. “Because what you’re doing now is creating value. In this case, we can obviously see that the investment the homeowner made in trusting us created the value that did not require them to pay anything in the way of damages. “
At Florida International University’s School of Architecture, students study and prepare for rising sea levelwhich is expected flood much of south Florida by the year 2100. Sara Pezeshk, a postdoctoral fellow, is using 3D printing to develop what she calls bio-tiles that could reduce coastal erosion.
However, Professor Thomas Spiegelhalter’s students use artificial intelligence plan the cities of the future. Models from other students show metropolises towering over water, with structures that mimic shapes found in nature and that resist hurricanes and other storms.
“It’s just a matter of time and it could be quick,” Spiegelhalter said. “We have to be open to understanding, to be truly efficient and to design optimal, self-sufficient and resilient structures is that we need to learn from nature because nature was here before we were here, and it will be here after we are gone.”
Manuel Bojorquez
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