Architecture in New Orleans

(nytimes.com)

Last summer I interned with a company called Evolve24, which was in the business of tracking companies' reputations and giving them advice about the future. My job the whole summer was reading every article written about a couple companies. One of the clients was an insurance company that took a lot of flack for their policies in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida because of Hurricane Katrina.

So basically I learned the ins and outs of the insurance industry for three months. Not too great for summer hang out conversation, but I learned a lot. Here's what the issue was in a nutshell (sorry for the typos, it's finals week): People bought home insurance from a company, in which 'hurricane insurance' is included. Hurricane Katrina hit and wiped out millions of homes in the Gulf. The insurance company claims adjusters came in and looked at the houses and said "no, no, this is flood damage. that coverage is extra and you didn't sign up for it." People were pisssssed.

But, after a summer of reading these articles, and comparing this American insurance company with ones overseas (UK, France, etc.) I learned that for insurance companies to actually offer full hurricane insurance to everyone in the Gulf who gets hit by hurricanes every ten years, no one would be able to afford the rates. In some areas of the UK, no insurance companies will offer coverage at all. You just live there at your own risk and rebuild after your house is blown over.

All this to say (I've been long-winded lately...), I had a conversation with my boss last summer about what houses would withstand a hurricane. A bomb shelter? Then I asked Julie's brother Andy (who's at architecture school in Arkansas) about it and he said that some people came up with an idea for a house that was on an axis, so the house could be blown by the wind and just move with whichever direction the wind was going. Weird. But then I was looking at my friend Marion's architecture and design magazine (Metropolis) and they had an article about Brad Pitt trying to figure out the same issue: what houses can withstand hurricanes in New Orleans?

Well, he started a campaign called Make It Right, where he had a design contest for architects to design homes that would withstand a hurricane and be under $150,000. The house above is designed with pylons underneath the house so it will float if there is a flood. Pretty sweet idea.

nytimes.com "Brad Pitt Commissions Designs for New Orleans"
Metropolis Magazine "Saint Brad" - click here for pictures of the designs