What we knew immediately after we were approached by Make It Right was that re-occupying the Lower Ninth Ward would require radical solutions. The primary challenge for this project was immediately apparent: how to occupy the land of the Lower 9th Ward given its ecological condition. To design a house that responds to the area's precarious ecological conditions - a hurricane hits Southeast Louisiana every 2.8 years, and it is estimated that New Orleans will sink approximately 6' this century, for instance. These realities led us to ask certain questions about the ways in which the house can respond to its environment - natural, social, cultural, economic, etc. The response is a highly performative, 1,000 square foot house that can be mass produced. It uses high-performance systems and prefabrication methods to produce an affordable house that is totally self-sufficient - during emergency mode, the house generates its own power and collects its own water. It is a prototype for affordable and sustainable housing in flood-prone regions.
I have read that the inspiration for the structure of the house came from the car industry. Could you explain in what way? What were your reasons for this choice?
The house is really about the "chassis," or the floating foundation, which can be developed and is completely separate from the shell in the same way a chassis of a car is separate from the body of a car. The chassis on the Float House functions like the chassis of a car. For example, GM's skateboard chassis is completely mass producible, yet engineered to fit a range of car body types. In the same way, the chassis on the Float House is designed to support a variety of customizable house configurations. What is built on top – what we refer to as the shell – is totally up to the owner. What you get in terms of the chassis is a floating foundation made of expanded polystyrene foam that is coated in glass fiber reinforced concrete with all of the electrical and plumbing systems embedded. The chassis comes with its high performance systems pre-installed, and it accommodates a flexible house design to be built on top.
The house uses a technology that is already widespread in the Netherlands. Did you work with any experts from the sector? Why did you decide to use this technology?
We were definitely aware of the technology used in the Netherlands and in flood zones worldwide, and we did work with engineers and technical specialists here in the U.S., including Nasser Saebi, PE, President of Strata International Group, Inc. The Float House was a collaboration between Morphosis and UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design. The project was developed over the course of three architecture studios. During the first quarter, the students presented a world housing study as well as a major building strategies study, both of which focused on single-family homes. This research, combined with initial studies from our office and expert consultants, informed our technological and design decisions, which we believe yielded the most appropriate solutions for the problem at hand.
How did you keep the costs low? How much would a house cost the end user?
The house will cost the end user $140,000 – like all Make It Right houses. The reason for developing the prototype is in part its affordability. Pre-fabrication minimizes on-site work and keeps the cost down. Furthermore, by identifying cost saving measures (such as finishes and a smaller floor area) our team was able to allocate limited resources towards a number of added-value features (for example, durable, energy efficient appliances and fixtures). These features in turn, lower life cycle use costs for the homeowner.
The Make it Right Foundation asked you to address ecological and sustainability concerns, and at the same retain the form and style of the traditional houses in the Lower Ninth Ward. How did you find the right balance between these two divergent requirements?
In response to the ecological and sustainability concerns set out by Make It Right, the FLOAT House is a high-performance house that generates its own power and collects its own water. The balance lies in the ideas of the chassis and the shell. Like the vernacular New Orleans shotgun house, the FLOAT House sits on a 4-foot base; rather than permanently raising the house on ten+ foot stilts, the house only rises in case of severe flooding. This configuration atop a chassis accommodates a traditional front porch, preserving the community's vital porch culture and facilitating accessibility for elderly and disabled residents. The shell allows the residents to build any house they want on top of the chassis, which contains the necessary high-performance mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
What was the general response - and the response of the end users – to your design?
Our website got more hits the day of the ribbon cutting than any other day in its history … While there has been substantial interest in the house by the local residents, due to this overwhelming interest from the media and the public, Make It Right has delayed its assignment of the house to a family.
