NEW ORLEANS — A house capable of floating atop rising floodwaters made its debut Tuesday in New Orleans alongside more than a dozen other homes built through actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation.
Called the FLOAT House, the unique home aims to answer the challenge posed by the Big Easy’s flood risk, starkly illustrated by the rising waters of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“I wanted to float it down the Mississippi River to New Orleans,” architect Thom Mayne said with a chuckle while in New Orleans for Tuesday’s event. Instead, the home was shipped in pieces from Los Angeles, where it had been constructed on UCLA’s campus.
The dwelling was designed by Morphosis Architects under the direction of Mayne, a professor at UCLA. It is long and narrow like the traditional New Orleans shotgun home and sits on a raised 4-foot base. It also has a front porch and energy-efficient features such as solar panels and a roof designed to capture and recycle water.
The base is a raft, and the 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom house can rise up to 12 feet as water levels rise. It could be priced at $150,000 if mass-produced.
