How can boats float and function? Mainly, boats fall under four main categories;( 1) how fast it can speed on water surface,( 2) boat stability,( 3) cost of material used to build and design, and finally( 4) the draft, how deep a boat can operate in water. These are summarized under Archimedes’ principle and physics of buoyancy( Carroll 2015; Nave 2015). A principle that states; the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the displaced water, and thus allows an object to float. Shape of an object also plays a role on its balance and stability. Flat base boats are likely to be more stable than shaped ones; they help boats to keep their minimum body surface under water level. They will also minimize friction between boat surface and floodwater flow, which will not allow any strong hits on objects’ basement, but instead run smoothly below.
8. Anti-flood Floating Shelters( AFFS) Concept Design Proposal
8.1 Proposed Housing Design System“ Anti-flood Floating Shelters” In this study, the proposal is a unique sustainable concept, suggesting a new and an innovative design, which will be tested on a small scale; single housing compounds or a single building. After testing and commissioning a design proposal, effectiveness and workability will be evaluated; design can be then approved and applied on different sites that are considered highly affected by floods, such as the City of Manila, Philippines.
Anti-flood floating shelters( AFFS) concept will mainly focus on the idea of flexibility. The concept of flexibility will elaborate design in;( 1) usage in different occasions, and matters,( 2) how design can be adjusted based on natural disasters,( 3) how proposed design can make usage of water, and generate other resources, and finally,( 4) highlights the presence of design concept in respect of its surrounding nature, materials, and most importantly its users. All of the above will be combined to produce a unique, good-looking design that considers the environment and future living. This design proposal will be shown in two stages; a building during a regular dry season, and a second scene during a wet rainy season( or presence of flood).
The main influence are the boats and their ability to balance and float on water surfaces. Thus, buoyancy principle will be applied on homes on a regular basis, they will settle down on ground as a regular system, but during floods, homes will rise by buoyant system installed under the house or building, and therefore will rise on top of water level, building will be able to move vertically. In case of major floods, none of the houses will sink and be covered by water, but instead, all homes and buildings will be floating on top of the water surfaces. On the other hand, boat and buoyant system, were not the only features and elements that influenced the proposal in this study, but also a conceptual design, suggested by a designer from New Orleans, Cornell, who designed a proposal after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans considering its surrounding neighborhoods; it was considered one of the most catastrophic natural disasters ever to impact the United States( US), said by one of a single family home owner. The concept of this proposal was to protect the family house by the ability of the house to rise up in the attendance of water. The house is attached from both sides, by two supporting walls; as shown in Figure 7 below. Images in the figure were captured from a video of flood simulation to show the workability of the system in a smaller scale, illustrating southwest view of the family home, showing the extraction of the house upwards, without causing any damages of destruction to its exterior or interior structures. Finally, the very bottom images illustrate the final design in a real flood scene where the design shows nicely how it floats and prevents the house from sinking in water like other neighboring homes.
142 ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari- Lecce, Italy