A human lifespan is short and our homes and other dwellings don't last much longer but after the Brisbane floods my wife and I chose to invest and rebuild a house that will likely be unique to the area (Fairfield, Brisbane). It will soon take a flood greater than 3m (2011 went to 1.8m on our block) to affect the house.
Most of the talk of flood protection revolves around height. Minimum habitable levels, Q50, Q100; statistical models which help to determine the 'likelihood' of flood which on the day meant little. Mother nature isn't interested in building codes. In a recent contest to choose a house design that would withstand flood, fire and storm was a submission by Bluescope Steel. Our architect showed me the design. Interesting things happen when you've had direct experience of a natural disaster. "It'll be destroyed by flood" I said. The design assumed you should try to keep water out of the house and had used a bathtub type of structure. But how high do you make the sides? And if and when the water (and mud and shit gets in how does it come out?) Without needing to think too much you knew you were looking at an expensive failure. And it won the award. Go figure.
So what else can you do?
Over 5 years ago after contemplating what we'd do should we experience a flood (we were insured for flood) I chanced upon a article in DWELL magazine. In it the owners of a fine looking home stated to their architect "We want the kids to be able to ride through the house and we want to be able to hose out each room." The result was a polished concrete floor, fine finished concrete blockwork and hardwood doors/windows. The home was beautiful, functional and would clearly survive a brisbane flood (the home was built in the USA on land which would never see flood).
