The Atlantic hurricane season has recently been in full force and once again proved to be formidable.
Ocean temperatures have hit historic highs, and our warming oceans fuel and feed stronger and stronger tropical cyclones.
When hitting land they bring heavy rainfall that leads to flooding and storm surges, and even death.
Inhabitants are forced to flee their homes, painfully leaving everything, sometimes even elderly relatives who are too infirm or stubborn to leave.
So will we have to be more mobile in the future in the light of our uncertain climate's future?
Will our homes have to be more than homes? Should our homes come with us when we flee? Should our homes be portable?
This prefab approach will help the construction industry reach net zero and allow us to be fluid.
Kirsty Hammond Editor of Specifier Review
Take your home with you
As the line between living and working blurs and the line between home and safety disintegrates, new architectural ideas are becoming both creative and portable.
Portable homes are on the rise, mostly with the young, struggling to get on the housing ladder, but what if established homeowners were to consider this idea too.
We have already discussed the merits of prefabricated homes, and the general consensus is that this is the future of construction, Pre-manufactured and delivered to site literally anywhere in the world.
But what if you could then just leave, taking your entire home with you?
Smart and mobile
Mobile architecture may be more sensible than you think. Society demands stationery dwelling but our future climate may not allow it!
Prefabricated portable homes can easily be transported from one area to another, from a danger area to a safe one, from flooded land to dry. These are structures that can be assembled and disassembled, extended and mobilised, they can even stand on wheels.
LTG Lofts, a German Company has created a smart mobile home. The unit has wheels to facilitate its movement. It is eco friendly, sustainable and stylish.
If global warming continues on its current trajectory, much of our habitable land could be underwater or flooded by 2030. There are 15 cities such as Amsterdam, Venice, and New York that could be submerged within a decade. Where will those people live? What will happen to their homes?
Rising sea levels and the increase in natural disasters will multiply in intensity but also frequency.
Freedomky is another ready made home that you can take anywhere you want.
Sustainable construction
In order to be portable our buildings will need to work more like a boat or a yacht. A light frame will be essential, concrete and large timber will be replaced by laminates and low carbon materials. The prefab homes of today use cross laminated timber for strength and this will continue. We can build more sustainably in this way.
The advances in technology will allow us to be more sustainable, more circular. Not only can our homes be manufactured and assembled but perhaps also disassembled and moved.
By making a shift to portable homes, waste will be diminished, and little will end in landfill. If you don't want to move it, you can recycle it.
The prefab approach to homes will help the construction industry reach net zero, benefit our climate and allow us to be fluid.
Our design approach to housing, our stagnant desire to be in one place no longer bears a relevance to our society, but more importantly, no longer bears a relevance to our climate.
Kirsty Hammond is publisher and editor of Specifier Review
