We Need to Wake-Up!
It sure seems like we don’t take building homes very seriously in this country. We see it time and again, year after year, a major weather event takes place, lives are lost, and billions of dollars in damage is racked up. We are currently working on a documentary film called The Last House Standing, about building or fortifying homes to withstand these disasters. Aris Papadopoulos has written an excellent book on this subject titled Resilience-The Ultimate Sustainability; an eye-opening read that discusses enacting stronger and safer building practices so that structures can withstand disasters.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of building a home, currently lives in a home, or has people they care about who live in homes. We keep making the same mistakes over and over, simply rebuilding the same way as before the disaster. When it comes to disaster planning, we tend to be more interested in reactive responses rather than proactive ones, focusing on cleaning up the mess and rebuilding as opposed to putting in the effort to build things so that they don’t need to be rebuilt. Sure, it’s great to have a disaster plan for “after the storm.” What would be even better is to build and live in houses that can actually “survive the storm.”
One of the more interesting examples in the book is that of Hammurabi’s Code which states that if a builder builds a faulty structure that collapses on someone and kills them then the builder should be put to death. While very harsh, the underlying point is important in that accountability is necessary in order to ensure quality. What kind of warranty does your wood framed house have? If it blows down in a storm does the guy that built it have “skin in the game?” Hurricane or flood insurance might help you rebuild, but after your deductible, the months of displacement, and losing possessions that likely were priceless to you, it’s just not enough.
There’s another interesting segment in the book that presents an environmentalist argument in favor of resilient building. While some argue that building resilient structures may be worse for the environment in the short term there is absolutely nothing “green” about having to build it twice. There’s also a lot of data presented about building codes and the way the construction industry operates--how building codes are decided behind closed doors and the general public doesn’t really get much of a say in them. This, in particular, emphasizes the need for rallying people behind the cause of demanding more resilient homes; it’s the only way we can make it happen.
If we don’t demand better homes, most builders probably won’t build them on their own. And since it’s our lives and property that are lost, we deserve better! If you are interested in reading the book you can find it on Amazon. We will keep you up to date with the latest news on our film The Last House Standing over the coming months. You can also follow our progress by signing up for the newsletter below.