Rock solid houses needed as Yolanda-like typhoons, powerful earthquakes, frequent flooding part of ‘new normal’
With two major calamities hitting the country in the last quarter of last year, architects and engineers see the need to build structures that can withstand disasters of epic proportions.
In a forum organized by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. – Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center (Rafi-EADSC), Cris Cyril Abbu, an architect who serves as a consultant to the United Nations, presented samples of designs of homes and schools that are resilient to typhoons as powerful as supertyphoon Yolanda and powerful earthquakes in the same magnitude as the one that hit Cebu and Bohol in October last year.
“There is a need to address the adverse effects of manmade and natural disasters and one of the most effective tool is to design and build resilient and sustainable or eco-efficient infrastructure,” he said.
Yesterday’s forum was preceded by the Visayas launch of the nationwide search for designs of disaster-proof houses and school buildings among architectural students. The search is organized by property developer Ortigas & Co. in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology and the Habitat for Humanity.
Abbu is connected with CHORA Architects & Associates, an international consultancy firm that is involved in researching new forms of urban planning and design. CHORA is presently involved in the restoration and building of earthquake and typhoon-resistant chapels in Palo, Leyte. Palo is one of the towns heavily devastated by the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda in November.
Abbu presented the designs developed by CHORA. The first one uses an aerodynamic design of a Dutch umbrella designed and developed by students of Delft University. It uses passive cooling design elements on walls and conserve water through the rain water harvesting system.
The second one uses conventional and traditional structure elements taking into consideration the different socio-cultural-historical layers of the Philippine society. It also uses passive cooling design elements, but its roof is a series of simple easy to build roofing system that is of desired slope for the wind to glide through the profile of the roof.
In his designs, Abbu has highlighted the need for a rainwater harvesting system in the buildings.
“There are a lot of benefits of rainwater harvesting. It conserves water, it’s available when power is interrupted during storms and disasters, reduces run-off and erosion, serves as water reserve for flushing toilets and fire fighting and reduces mosquito breeding grounds,” he said.
CHORA, together with UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) also presented a concept paper on how to put up “green schools” in Cebu.
In their visit to northern Cebu, CHORA experts noted a failure of design and construction, They said the Marcos-type schoolbuildings were sub-standard.
“I really don’t understand why there are different column pedestal design in one Marcos-type school building alone with different system of installation. Are these sub-standard? Caused by poor workmanship? Failure in monitoring? Failure in construction? Corruption? I really don’t know and understand,” he said.
Architect Joy Onozawa talks about the importance of building disaster-resilient infrastructure in a forum held at the RAFI board room. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)
Maria Lourdes “Joy” Onozawa, who co-chairs the sub-committee on integrated development and spatial planning of the Metro Cebu Development and Coordinating Board, said stronger typhoons, massive earthquakes, rising sea level, frequent floods, and changing weather patterns is the “new norm” that planners and designers should acknowledge and accept.
Jerry Maratas, a structural engineer, said there is a need for authorities to revisit the country’s building and structural codes.
“The disasters should serve as a wake up call for key players in the building industry, architects, engineers, contractors and government building officials,” he said.
Maratas said that the 2010 Structural Code of the Philippines has classified school buildings as essential facilities meaning they are expected to withstand typhoons, earthquakes and other calamities. But he said most buildings especially those built before 2010 were not designed to withstand too much force.
Property developer Ortigas & Co. challenged the country’s architecture students to design a house and school building that can withstand winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour and an intensity eight earthquake.
The 83-year-old company issued the challenge as it launched, together with the Department of Science and Technology and Habitat for Humanity, a two-month long search for such an architectural design in a contest dubbed “Build Forward.”
WIND TUNNEL TEST
The top five designs would undergo a wind tunnel test supervised by the DOST mimicking conditions at the height of supertyphoon Yolanda.
The winning design will be used by Habitat for Humantiy in constructing about 30,000 core houses in Yolanda-ravaged areas in the next three years.
Ortigas & Co. real estate division general manager Joey Santos said the nationwide contest was open to architecture students in the country.
The organizers tapped the University of San Carlos College of Architecture and Fine Arts to help them disseminate information on the search among colleges and universities in Cebu.
Students should design a house with a floor size of at least 36 sq.m. complete with two bedrooms, a toilet and bath, kitchen and living space. The construction should be finished in a month and a half with a budget of P200,000.
The school building should have four classrooms and one toilet and bath. Each classroom should be at least 63 square meters wide. The construction should be completed in two months with a budget of P1.2 million.
Santos said the materials should be locally sourced and readily available. “We have seen the needs of the people change from the day we started developing some of our subdivisions back in the 1970s. Today, as seen in the devastating effects of supertyphoon Yolanda, Filipinos need something radically different, which is climate adaptive infrastructure,” he said.
The deadline for submission of entries is on March 28. Interested parties may register online at www.buildforward.com.ph.
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