Building Design For Wind And Earthquake

Amherst artist plans prototype of storm-relief kit house

A lifelong local artist is raising money to build a prototype kit house that could withstand storms and wind, cost less than $25,000 and be assembled quickly.

Its designer says the low-cost Octagonal Living Units would be ideal for disaster relief or an artist’s studio and could be adapted for a permanent house or vacation cabin.

Craig Pleasants , program director for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, works in multiple media and has created sculptures of buildings and vernacular building.

To create the prototype kit, he is collaborating with New York-based www.kickstarter.com , a funding platform for artists. A total of 69 people have pledged nearly $7,000 so far, and he must raise $21,000 by the end of the month in order to manufacture and market the structures.

Each steel-foam section of the octagon would be eight feet wide. The pieces are bolted to a slab and screwed together with self-tapping screws.

“It’ll go up pretty much instantly,” Pleasants said. “It would be a good, immediate solution for transitional housing.”

Because the design is octagonal (with 20 percent more floor space that a square structure), wind would flow around it. The pre-cut building panels of steel and expanded polystyrene serve as effective insulation and would be energy-efficient and have little construction waste.

“These panels have been tested for years,” he said.

The prototype would be 400 square feet, including windows, doors, siding and roofing. “If you want it to be permanent, it can be,” he said.

After Pleasants designed the 400-square-foot model, a massive earthquake in January devastated Haiti.

Pleasants, who had been invited to show his work at a Richmond venue, made a smaller model for the show.

“I adapted my octagonal as a very tiny one, nine feet across, with 72 square feet,” he said. “In Haiti, I thought, people are living under blue tarps. A nine-foot structure would be so much better than a tent.”

Pleasants’ work has been shown at The Alternative Museum, Artist’s Space and White Columns, in New York City; the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Marseille, France; and the Kunst und Gewerveberein in Bavaria, Germany.

Simplified Building Design for Wind and Earthquake Forces (Parker ...

Contains practical, easy-to-read explanations regarding the issues and problems encountered in designing for these natural disasters. This edition includes important code updates from the 1994 Uniform Building Code as well as more detailed information on engineering computations and lateral force construction. Increased attention is paid to the relationship between building design and seismic response. Features a discussion of the latest CAD products for lateral design work. Serves as a major reference for anyone preparing for seismic and wind design test sections of State Board Examinations (for licensing purposes).

Amazon Sales Rank: #919410 in Books Published on: 1997-07 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Binding: Paperback 368 pages

From the Publisher Contains practical, easy-to-read explanations regarding the issues and problems encountered in designing for these natural disasters. This edition includes important code updates from the 1994 Uniform Building Code as well as more detailed information on engineering computations and lateral force construction. Increased attention is paid to the relationship between building design and seismic response. Features a discussion of the latest CAD products for lateral design work. Serves as a major reference for anyone preparing for seismic and wind design test sections of State Board Examinations (for licensing purposes). From the Back Cover "I would highly recommend the inclusion of this text in the office libraries of our member companies and those involved in the construction arena."--C. R. Wagus, Technical Director American Architectural Manufacturers Association.This updated edition of Simplified Building Design for Wind and Earthquake Forces brings attention to the serious need for building design and construction that can withstand extreme forces of nature. It presents a practical introduction to the fundamentals and explores problems encountered in designing for these natural disasters.

Simplified Building Design for Wind and Earthquake Forces

Wind and earthquake resistant buildings, structural analysis and design

Simplified design of concrete structures

Simplified Design of Wood Structures

Seismic and wind design of concrete buildings, (2000 IBC, ASCE 7-98, ACI 318-99)