How Amphibious Housing Can Save Communities in Flood Zones is the title of Elizabeth English's TEDx talk presented at Manhattan Beach, California, in November 2019. In the talk she discusses the origins of the BFP in post-Katrina New Orleans and subsequent research on culturally sensitive applications for flood-vulnerable communities in Vietnam, Canada, Nicaragua, North Carolina and Louisiana.

The third International Conference on Amphibious Architecture, Design and Engineering was hosted last October by the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland. It was a great success, attended by 85 people from 19 countries, with the presentation of 60 lectures, research papers, and posters.

JOIN US IN VIETNAM IN 2021 FOR THE FOURTH ICAADE

Hope to see you there!

The Buoyant Foundation Project's Vulnerable in Vietnam project has been selected to be showcased at Expo 2020 in Dubai as part of the Global Best Practice Programme.

Due to COVID-19, Expo 2020, originally planned for October 2020 through March 2021, has been rescheduled to take place from October 2021 through 31 March 2022.

The NRC Pavilion participated in Waterloo Region's Doors Open Event last September. The 2019 Doors Open theme was "Water" and the NRC Pavilion was on display as the prototype for a novel approach to flood resilience. Located on a stormwater retention pond at the University of Waterloo North Campus, the pavilion serves as proof-of-concept of amphibious construction and allows for the monitoring and evaluation of its performance in the Canadian context of ice and snow.

Currently, the BFP is testing a range of buoyancy materials for their performance in freeze-thaw conditions.

The Amphibious Homes for Vietnam’s Vulnerable project was selected as a finalist in the 2019 Architizer A+ Awards, in the "Architecture for Good" category. The four retrofitted amphibious homes are improving the lives and protecting the property of the homeowners and their families in two flood-prone regions of the Mekong Delta.

The Buoyant Foundation Project's Vietnam prototypes won first place in the Sustainable Products Category for the Architecture MasterPrize Product Design Award Competition. The amphibious retrofits are composed of recycled buoyancy elements (recapped jugs and barrels) and other locally-available, cost-effective components. Our approach respects and preserves the local culture and supports the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle for rural communities.

8 April 2020

The Government of Ontario released a new flooding strategy that focuses on structural modification of houses to better assist homeowners, municipalities, and conservation authorities. The BFP posits that amphibious architecture offers a more sustainable and resilient solution. 

Novae Res Urbis

13 February 2020

The BFP's innovative amphibious building technology is a simple retrofit that could help cottages with crawl space foundations to survive flooding.

Cottage Life

9 December 2019

The paper Building Resilience through Flood Risk Reduction: The Benefits of Amphibious Foundation Retrofits to Heritage Structures has been published in the International Journal of Architectural Heritage: Conservation, Analysis and Restoration. Amphibious retrofit construction is capable of delivering superior, unobtrusive flood risk reduction with no significant change to an historic building's appearance. 

Read the full paper here

19-21 February 2020

In her presentation Adaption through Amphibiation, BFP Director Elizabeth English spoke about how amphibious retrofit construction increases the flood resilience of flood-vulnerable communities by reducing their risk of damage due to climate change induced flooding. The conference was held in Vancouver.

13-15 January 2020

Dr. English presented a talk at the 9th ICBR, held in Nusa Dua, Bali. The focus of her talk was on the potential of amphibiation to provide flood risk reduction leading to improved adaptation to climate change for First Nations communities in Canada. 

Elena is the Research Project Coordinator for BFP where she supports the planning and coordination of research activities, supervision of research assistants, and oversees knowledge mobilization and day-to-day administration. With a background in community and international development, community-based research, and design, Elena is interested in how design solutions can address some of the world’s most pressing issues and bring about social change.

Michelle is a Research Assistant with BFP and an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo's School of Architecture. Michelle's work for the BFP includes supporting the design and construction of a retrofit prototype for Phase 2 of the NRC project, compiling the ICAADE conference proceedings for publication, and helping with communications and knowledge mobilization efforts.