More fireproof buildings needed out west!
The terrible wildfire infernos in Los Angeles are being blamed on the failure to reduce the brush 'fuel.' And on water supply systems inadequate to support multiple hydrants. From pictures of the disaster the mass of the destroyed houses look to be standard suburban woodframe construction.
Maybe people should build differently when they live in among flammable vegetation! I think back to Australia where I lived 1947 to 1980. On the outskirts of cities there the native eucalypt 'gum trees' and acacia wattle burn fiercely and often. Many native plants need fire to 'pop' their seeds open to propogate.
In the 'bush' (Oz for the wild) you build in metal, not wood, in concrete not fiberboard. Flammable sheathing isn't used under cladding. And they'd say you were "off your rocker" if you wanted to buy asphalt sheet for a roof.
One of the architects there of my generation is Glenn Murcutt. Also this.
I've always loved this Murcutt house in the fire-prone 'bush' of the Blue Mountains about 60 miles west of Sydney. Called the Simpson Lee house its exterior is built of all non-flammable materials -- steel posts, steel framing, steel walls, steel roof, metal blinds. And it has that huge rectangular-plan pool next to it to supply a pumped inundation system automatically triggered by fire.
Here's a youtube on the Simpson Lee House (great bird and frog sounds) :
In the far southern tip of Sicily, Italy here's a new house named Casa Bendico in a fire-prone location outside the city of Noto built entirely -- floors, walls and roof too -- of 'artisanal' concrete.
The concrete was made with red and brown pozzolans or volcanic ash pressed into rough wood formwork in 4" lifts for texture. Some of the furniture is stone -- travertine.
There's almost nothing to burn.
Rammed earth is a variant on poured concrete -- a sand, gravel, clay mix with iime or lean cement as the stabilizer that is rammed in successive layers inside wood formwork. Here's a concrete and rammed earth house of six box-shaped buildings in the dry Baja Peninsula in Mexico just south of San Diego CA.
The rammed earth is often built atop concrete stem walls.
Baja California is probably safe from Pres Trump who has a penchant for the High Schlock in architecture (think Mar-a-Lago) Or is it Low Schlock? (Yiddish speakers help me please.)
Also https://archello.com/news/detail-rammed-earth-walls-of-casa-ballena-los-cabos
Pricey sure
All these are expensive to build buildings, of course, but well within the budgets of many of the LA celebs and hundreds of others who just lost their boring if huge woodframed, asphalt-roofed suburban houses in the terrible fires.
But we need a US example. Olson Kundig the Seattle-based firm is renowned for fun hand-cranked systems to move steelframed glass window-walls and full-wall shutters. They've designed a number of weekender buildings in the wild to survive fires and thieves. Chicken Point Cabin on a lake in northern Idaho is a classic fireproof. Its walls are all plain 8"x8"x16" concrete block, the preferrred walling material of historic garages in downtown Frederick until the Historic Preservation Commission took a dislike to it.
Chicken Point Cabin's exterior is the noble concrete block, steel I-beam, steel plate, and steelframed glass. Inside there's a splendid curved fireplace of heavy steel plate.
The whole front window wall slowly pivots open when the very low gear ratio handcrank is turned furiously making the building an openair pavilion in nice weather. When fire approaches you send your 5 year-old to crank the wall closed.
PSam 20250110