IN A RECENT “Future Earth” online forum of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), the problem of frequent floods and rising sea levels was discussed.
During that discussion, it was mentioned that there is already a need for new designs for elevated house on stilts designs, and also floating house boats designs.
It was also suggested that the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) and the Commission of Higher Education (CHED) should be contacted for both of them to provide the solutions.
The idea is to encourage architecture and engineering students to plan and implement actual design projects of these housing designs that could be used by the government housing and disaster management agencies, while at the same time get academic credits for their graduation requirements.
Perhaps, a design contest could be launched for this purpose, with prizes to be donated by private companies and government agencies.
For your information, I am just a private citizen. I am just acting on my own, but if there is a positive response to this letter, I would be able to connect you to the appropriate public and private contacts.
In support of the idea, I sent a letter to Architect Felino “Jun” Palafox, Jr., Commission on Higher Education chairman Prospero “Popoy” De Vera, Department of Science and Technology secretary Renato U. Solidum and Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development secretary Jose “Jerry” Acuzar, hoping that they could all help one way or the other.
While waiting for them to respond, I did some partial research work, and I found out that a Manobo tribe in the Agusan Marsh has been living in house boats on board bamboo rafts for a long time now.
Many Badjao tribes have been living in houses on stilts also for a long time now. Perhaps we should really seriously consider these two ideas now, because the floods will really keep coming now, and the sea levels will really keep rising now.
Since we could no longer change these two realities and since we could not convince the people who are living in these hazardous areas to move, then maybe the only remaining option for us now is to change the designs of the houses in these areas./PN
