Reuters, Ayutthaya
In
this picture provided by Site-Specific Co Ltd, the 2.8 million baht
($86,000) amphibious house, designed and built by the architecture firm
Site-Specific Co Ltd for Thailand's National Housing Authority (NHA)
rises up 85cm after architects and NHA staff fill a manmade test hole
underneath the house with water during a trial run in Ban Sang village
of Ayutthaya province September 7, 2013. Photo: Reuters
Nestled
among hundreds of identical white and brown two-storey homes crammed in
this neighbourhood for factory workers is a house with a trick - one
not immediately apparent from its green-painted drywall and grey shade
panels.
Hidden under the house and its wraparound porch are steel
pontoons filled with Styrofoam. These can lift the structure three
metres off the ground if this area, two hours north of Bangkok, floods
as it did in 2011 when two-thirds of the country was inundated,
affecting a fifth of its 67 million people.
The 2.8 million baht
($86,000) amphibious house in Ban Sang village is one way architects,
developers and governments around the world are brainstorming solutions
as climate change brews storms, floods and rising sea levels that
threaten communities in low-lying coastal cities.
"We can try to
build walls to keep the water out, but that might not be a sustainable
permanent solution," said architect Chuta Sinthuphan of Site-Specific
Co. Ltd, the firm that designed and built the house for Thailand's
National Housing Authority.
"It's better not to fight nature, but
to work with nature, and amphibious architecture is one answer," said
Chuta, who is organising the first international conference on
amphibious architecture in Bangkok in late August.
Asia is the
region most affected by disasters, with 714,000 deaths from natural
disasters between 2004 and 2013 - more than triple the previous decade -
and economic losses topping $560 billion, according to the United
Nations.
Some 2.1 billion people live in the region's
fast-growing cities and towns, and many of these urban areas are located
in vulnerable low-lying coastal areas and river deltas, with the
poorest and most marginalised communities often waterlogged year-round.
For
Thailand, which endures annual floods during its monsoon season, the
worsening flood risks became clear in 2011 as panicked Bangkok residents
rushed to sandbag and build retaining walls to keep their homes from
flooding.
Vast parts of the capital - which is normally protected
from the seasonal floods - were hit, as were factories at enormous
industrial estates in nearby provinces such as Ayutthaya. Damage and
losses reached $50 billion, according to the World Bank.
And the
situation is worsening. A 2013 World Bank-OECD study forecast average
global flood losses multiplying from $6 billion per year in 2005 to $52
billion a year by 2050.
FLOATING HOUSE
In Thailand, as
across the region, more and more construction projects are returning to
using traditional structures to deal with floods, such as stilts and
buildings on barges or rafts.
Bangkok is now taking bids for the
construction of a 300-bed hospital for the elderly that will be built
four metres above the ground, supported by a structure set on
flood-prone land near shrimp and sea-salt farms in the city's
southernmost district on the Gulf of Thailand, said Supachai Tantikom,
an advisor to the governor.
For Thailand's National Housing
Authority (NHA) - a state enterprise that focuses on low-income housing -
the 2011 floods reshaped the agency's goals, and led to experiments in
coping with more extreme weather.
The amphibious house, built
over a manmade hole that can be flooded, was completed and tested in
September 2013. The home rose 85 cm (2.8 feet) as the large dugout space
under the house was filled with water.
In August, construction
is set to begin on another flood-resistant project - a 3 million baht
($93,000) floating one-storey house on a lake near Bangkok's main
international airport.
"Right now we're testing this in order to
understand the parameters. Who knows? Maybe in the future there might be
even more flooding... and we would need to have permanent housing like
this," said Thepa Chansiri, director of the NHA's department of research
and development.
The 100 square metre (1,000 square foot)
floating house will be anchored to the lakeshore, complete with
electricity and flexible-pipe plumbing.
Like the amphibious
house, the floating house is an experiment for the NHA to understand
what construction materials work best and how fast such housing could be
built in the event of floods and displacement.
FLOATING CITIES?
The
projects in Thailand are a throwback to an era when Bangkok was known
as the Venice of the East, with canals that crisscrossed the city
serving as key transportation routes. At that time, most residents lived
on water or land that was regularly inundated.
"One of the best
projects I've seen to cope with climate-related disasters is Bangkok in
1850. The city was 90 percent on water - living on barges on water,"
said Koen Olthuis, founder of Waterstudio, a Dutch architecture and
urban planning firm.
"There was no flood risk, there was no
damage. The water came, the houses moved up and down," he said by
telephone from the Netherlands.
Olthuis started Waterstudio in
2003 because he was frustrated that the Dutch were building on land in a
flood-prone country surrounded by water, while people who lived in
houseboats on the water in Amsterdam "never had to worry about
flooding".
His firm now trains people from around the world in
techniques they can adapt for their countries. It balances high-end
projects in Dubai and the Maldives with work in slums in countries such
as Bangladesh, Uganda and Indonesia.
One common solution for
vulnerable communities has been to relocate them to higher ground
outside urban areas - but many people work in the city and do not want
to move.
Olthuis says the solution is to expand cities onto the water.
Waterstudio
has designed a shipping container that floats on a simple frame
containing 15,000 plastic bottles. The structure can be used as a
school, bakery or Internet cafe.
Waterstudio's aim is to test
these containers in Bangladesh slums, giving communities flood-safe
floating public structures that would not take up land, interfere with
municipal rules or threaten landowners who don't want permanent new
slums.
"Many cities worldwide have sold their land to
developers... and now when we go to them, we say, 'You don't have land
anymore, but you have water,'" Olthuis said. "If your community is
affected by water, the safest place to be is on the water."
Bangladesh's bowlers then answered with a thoroughly disciplined performance with the ball. Rubel Hossain was just mesmeric at the end to deliver those two fatal blows.
We hope you enjoyed our coverage of this thriller from Adelaide. Don't forget to tune into Match Point, which should be starting very shortly. We will be back again tomorrow as the Men in Blue face off against the mighty Shamrock nation. Till then, this is Rohan Sharma signing off for ESPNcricinfo.
Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh captain: Feel very proud and a special thanks to the team management and coaching staff, and of course to the boys as well. Thought the wicket was really good and we had to bowl well. In the start we were not so good, but in the middle we came back well. Mahmudullah scored his first hundred for Bangladesh, and Mushfiqur was also brilliant at the end. I think Rubel Hossain will be very happy now as he picked up four crucial wickets. Tamim did feel really bad after that dropped catch, as he is one of our best fielders, but in the end it didn't matter. Really happy for all those people back home who have wanted us to make it this far. This is for you guys. We had a good combination today, especially with the seven batsmen. They showed their guts today, and the bowlers then did a very good job.
Eoin Morgan, England captain: Pretty poor to be knocked out this early from a World Cup. Unbelievably disappointing. I thought the guys bowled well at half time, especially with the short boundaries and the way the wicket played. We bowled reasonably well, but we couldn't quite match it up with the bat. I can't pick where it went wrong. I am gutted at the moment. We struggled and fought and fought our way to try and get through to the quarter-finals, and then from there find a way through to the last few games. Again, the changes we made at the start of the tournament were necessary. The two again we made today were also necessary. We had gone four games into the group stages without the results we wanted. It ultimately comes down to the performance, and some of them did, but not all of us as a unit. We have tried to address the problem, but obviously it hasn't worked. Our expectations were higher than the way we performed, so it is obviously disappointing. No idea what will happen from here. Again, there will be an inquest over the next few weeks to see what went wrong, and then we will go from there.
10.18 pm: Don't go anywhere just yet as we expect more quotes from the match presentation.
Mahmudullah, Man of the Match: Really impressed by the attitude of our boys. All the boys chipped in and everything went well. I was just trying to bat properly and not think too much. Soumya batted really well, along with Mushy, who was the aggressor towards the end. We thought we were about 15-20 runs short initially, but we thought that if we got early wickets, then we were in with a chance. For us this victory is really special, and thank to all of the fans for supporting us. Tamim is one of the best fielders in our team, so a catch can be dropped in the match. The way Rubel bowled those last two balls, was just something really special.
Mahmudullah wins Man of the Match for his 103 in the first innings.
10.15 pm: Pool A has been decided now, with New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka into the quarter-finals.
10.13 pm: England showed plenty of heart to run this chase close, but in the end, Bangladesh's bowlers, and lack of extras, proved to be the difference. They are overjoyed as they embrace one another in the dressing room. This victory now takes them to 7 points, as they now have the luxury of playing New Zealand next without any undue pressure of qualification into the second stage. Spare a thought for England though, who look to be answering a lot of tough questions in the coming days...
10.11 pm: Stunned silence from the England dressing room as the Bangladesh players flop on top of one another on a pile. This goes up in the echelons of Bangladesh cricket as one of its greatest cricketing days. Bangladesh have pretty much secured their progression into the knockouts as England are bundled out of the tournament.