Fluidome: Advanced Aquatic Habitat for Natural Disaster Mitigation

Welcome to Fluidome, an innovative project designed to redefine residential architecture by creating a resilient house situated over water. Traditional housing often fails in the face of escalating natural disasters, causing devastating consequences for communities worldwide. Floods alone account for over $40 billion in damages annually, while earthquakes and high winds further compromise the safety and integrity of conventional homes.

In this project, I apply advanced principles from civil engineering and materials science to create a robust, disaster-resistant dwelling. The design features a unique layout supported by a square base and eight pillars, with upper levels comprising circular and rectangular rooms arranged in an X-shape. The third floor, topped with a dome, not only enhances the architectural aesthetics but also provides functional benefits.

By using Autodesk software, I conducted comprehensive structural analyses to ensure optimal load distribution and stability under various environmental stresses. High-strength concrete and corrosion-resistant steel were meticulously selected for their durability and performance in marine environments. Additionally, innovative materials such as fiber-reinforced polymers contribute to the lightweight and resilient construction. In this Instructables, I will be demonstrating the steps taken in order to create the concept for this housing structure, consider the factors needed for the design of this house, the creation of a CAD model considering those principles, and the implementation of a substantiated prototype.

1. Graph Paper & Pen
2. Fusion 360 Design Software
3. Google Docs and Internet Access
4. Optional: Google Scholar/Research Database Access
5. Foamboard
6. X-Acto Knife
7. Blue Duct Tape
8. White Duct Tape
9. Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
10. LED Lighting
11. 10V Power Supply
12. 2 Servo Motors
13. Several Male-Male Jumper Cable
14. Arduino Uno and Breadboard
15. Arduino Uno Power Supply
16. Solar Panel

Research is a preeminent step in the design process and I wanted to become more aware of the area of rigid architecture and natural civil engineering that I began to do some reading into the space before starting the project. The following are steps I followed and that I would recommend you follow to implement this project and be able to derive a concrete understanding along the way.

1. Explore existing resilient housing designs and technologies, focusing on solutions for natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, and high winds Also, I reviewed statistical data on the economic and social impacts of natural disasters on residential structures to understand the urgency for resilient housing solutions.
2. Use online databases such as Google Scholar to find peer-reviewed studies and research papers on materials, structural design principles, and innovative solutions. I personally had access to some online research databases due to having access from a previous opportunity, but it can be done purely through Google scholar and open access databases as well.
3. Document key findings on materials that can serve your function well and note their physical properties and advantages. For me, the materials I explored most prominently were high-strength concrete, corrosion-resistant steel, and fiber-reinforced polymers used in disaster-prone areas.
4. Investigate case studies of successful resilient housing projects worldwide, noting their architectural layouts and construction methods.
5. Summarize research findings in categories like structural integrity, materials science, and environmental sustainability for your design. Note these down in a Google Doc or Microsoft Word document and ensure that you keep these in mind as parameters for your idea conceptualization stage.

Idea generation is the most creative and exhausting portion of the design phase, as it requires you to conceptualize several formations and several designs for the structure you hope to create while implementing multiple features in cohesion that you believe will be beneficial whilst also working under some strict parameters. However, the research phase helps to reduce this burden on this step as the considerations have already been made with the design in mind, so the idea generation phase mostly revolves around coming up with novel features and designs to implement the principles learned previously and amalgamating it with a few existing designs.

1. Elevation for Flood Protection: The initial concept for Fluidome revolves around elevating the structure to mitigate flood risks. Inspired by coastal architecture and resilient housing designs, the idea is to raise the living spaces above potential flood levels.
2. Triangle Supports and Wider Base for Stability: Considering the structural integrity, triangular supports and a wider base were envisioned to distribute weight evenly and resist seismic forces. This design choice draws from both architectural principles and advanced engineering practices, aiming to provide a stable foundation for the circular housing units above.
3. Dome Roof for Aerodynamics and Weather Resistance: The dome-shaped roof serves dual purposes: aerodynamics to minimize wind resistance and robustness to withstand harsh weather conditions such as hurricanes. This architectural feature not only enhances the Fluidome's aesthetic appeal but also reinforces its resilience against extreme weather events.According to Bernoulli's principle, the curved surface of the dome allows wind to flow smoothly over it, reducing drag forces that could potentially lift or damage the structure during high wind events such as hurricanes. 
4. Piston Elevation System for Emergency Situations: In the event of an emergency like flooding or seismic activity, a piston elevation system was proposed to lift the entire structure to safer heights. This innovative mechanism ensures rapid response to environmental threats, safeguarding inhabitants and belongings effectively.
5. Locally Powered Flood Lights: To enhance safety and visibility during emergencies, locally powered flood lights were integrated into the design. These lights are powered by renewable energy sources such as solar panels, ensuring functionality even during power outages.

After coming up with the idea for the housing itself, I wanted to lay out the fundamentals of the house and how the interior design would look and operate physically, so I decided to make a mockup of the house layout. This is an important step to consider in your design, especially if you have something in mind you want to incorporate on the inside, but it is the space that is the least crucial I believe to the efficacy of the design.

1. First Floor Layout: The first floor of Fluidome is meticulously planned to maximize functionality and comfort. It includes a bedroom, kitchen, a second bedroom, and a bathroom. Each space is strategically positioned to optimize privacy and convenience, catering to the daily needs of its occupants.
2. Second Floor Layout: Designed for both relaxation and productivity, the second floor of Fluidome features a spacious living room, a dedicated workspace, an outdoor dining area with patio access, a second bathroom, a home gym, and an additional bedroom. This floor serves as a versatile hub for social gatherings, work-from-home scenarios, and personal fitness routines.
3. Third Floor Layout: The third floor of Fluidome is dedicated to leisure and intellectual pursuits. It houses an observatory for stargazing and celestial observation, a storage area, and a library space. Additionally, a second small workspace provides a quiet environment for focused tasks, complementing the recreational and educational amenities of this level.

The following steps all pertain to the CAD Design, which I did in Fusion 360 software with student access. For said steps, I will merely be covering the specific steps that I took in order to bring about the design, but you can make adjustments along the way if you hope to scale this design or hope to create a design of your own. For this particular design, I used inches as I wanted it to match the scale of the prototype I planned to create, but you can scale this if you have more material constraints.

1. Create a new drawing on the top face, create a circle of 8.75 inch diameter, create a central square with length 5, and create a large rectangle of 16x5 for the extending rooms
2. Create 6 circles for the pillars, near the ends of the extending rooms, and establish layers for walls around the latent objects
3. Extrude the 6 pillars upward 3 inches, whilst also extruding the central support mechanism 3 inches as well.

This was a step that I included to show that aspirations and design conditions can change and be altered through the design process itself. I initially planned to make the floors crossed, but had a temporarily idea to create the second floor upward as well and decided to pursue this. However, upon realizing that my previous design was more substantiated, allowed for more of my initial factors, and introduced additional support and aesthetic for the building, I decided to return back to that design.

1. Extrude the base of the design, located above the pillars, upward nearly half an inch
2. Extrude the walls of the design another 3 inches further past the base and ensure to draw the borders for these walls in the corners if you had not done so previously
3. Create yet another half inch enclosure for the second floor floor and base

1. Hide the previous base drawing and create a new one on the top plane but resting atop the ceiling of the first floor. Create the circle and extending rectangle to the same specifications mentioned initially.
2. Extend both of these upward 3 inches, and crate the final 0.5 inch barrier between the second and third floor.
3. Go the front view and create an arc along half of the width of the house from the ceiling of the second floor. Make sure to make this a whole and complete shape
4. Revolve the arc by the central axis and create the dome structure included within the design. You can adjust the size of the dome to your liking, especially the height, but I set it at around 2 inches.
5. Fillet and chamfer as needed, I filleted the connections between the pillars and the button of the base as those allowed for greater extensions and became more capable of handling support loads. I also filleted the edges in order to save on material costs while also making the design more aerodynamic as planned and not compromising any of the structural integrity of the design itself.

The next phase of this design process involves the creation of a physical prototype for the design that uses the previously established design plan in CAD and the prior features from the feature list to demonstrate how this would look if implemented. For this piece, I went at scale with the dimensions mentioned on CAD, as I previously stated, and I used foamboard for the implementation as it proved to be versatile, strong, inexpensive, and could be used to show uniform construction.

1. Begin by drawing the outline of the base on the foamboard
2. Cut out 1 3 inch wide, 27.5 inch long piece for the inner circle, 4 pieces of 3 inch width and 4 inch length, and 2 pieces of 3 inch width and 3.75 inches length
3. Lay the 3x27.5 piece flat, and cut one marking for every 1.5 inches included in the piece; don't cut fully, just partially, so that you can bend it and create the circle needed through the paper still attached on the foamboard
4. Curl the piece and glue it on the base, along with the preexisting pieces meant to be positioned onto the first floor piece
5. Take the other rectangular pieces and glue them down onto the base, so that it looks like a complete piece. Once you have glued all of them down, cut out the small segments of the circles that is separating the circle from the extended rooms. By the end, it should look like the last included image in this step.
6. Create some small 3 inch by 1.5 inch pieces, 6 of them, to create the pillars. As precisely as possible, create the same precise cuts at every 0.3 inch segment and then curl to crate the pillars for the design and put them in their intended location.

1. Get your Arduino Uno and Breadboard and position them onto a piece of foamboard to keep them together as one entity
2. Get your two servo motors and position them facing one another, but in opposite orientations so that they both rotate from the base upwards
3. Get on button and one 10k ohm resistor and add the resistor with one end in the same line as the button and another on another place in the breadboard.
4. Take one wire and connect one end to the 5V tab on the Arduino and the other end on some letter of the breadboard at the top. Take another wire and connect the Ground of the Arduino at one end to another letter column on the breadboard. This creates the spot for the power and grounding for the servos.
5. Connect the red wires from the servos to the 5V line as this represents the power wire, connect the dark brown/black wires from the servos to the ground column as this is the ground wire, and finally connect the yellow-orange wire to one of the digital pins on the top of the Arduino as this is the signal wire.
6. Implement the included code file below in order to get both of these servo motors to move upon press.
7. Create a housing for the Arduinos using segments of foamboard. Cut out 4 pieces of approximately 5 inch by 3 inch segments and glue those together and onto the board as well.
8. Cut out small segments of 2 of the walls facing each other and lay both the Arduinos there, ensuring they are placed and stuck on the ground and the rotary force can only act well in one direction, which is upwards.
9. Create the other piece to be placed inside the larger housing. To create this, cut out 4 pieces, approximately 2.5 inches by 4.5 inches, and glue them together ensuring they fit cleanly within the other casing so as to not introduce a source of friction or jamming, and then also that their height is well-matched to the previous casing as it is meant to lie atop the rotors

Relatively easy and simple process, as it is mostly a combination of previous factors in creating what is essentially the first floor.

1. Take the base established from Step 7 and Step 8, and lay out in your workspace.
2. Take the first floor piece that was created in Step 7 and the small inner box that was made in Step 8 and glue them together, with the inner box lying in the middle of the first floor piece
3. Once you have glued them together, you can insert the inner piece within the outer enclosure and it should look like one complete body. By the end, it should look like the 3rd image included in this step.

1. The second floor circle is the same process as creating the circle for Step 7, so refer back to that for instructions. Dimensions are the same as well, 27.5 inches by 3 inches.
2. Then, also cut out some room of the same size, which involves 2 4 inch by 2.5 inch pieces and 1 4.5 inch by 2.5 inch piece. Put these all together for the bigger section. If desires, cut out a central square of your liking as a window in the 4.5 inch by 2.5 inch piece.
3. Cut out some small strips, 2 pieces that are 4 inch by 0.75 inch and 1 piece that is 4.5 inch by 0.75 inch. Position these the same way, creating the outdoor patio area with small gates and railings.
4. Create a roof for the second floor indoor room through cutting out another piece that is around 5 inches by 4 inches, but ensure that there is a circular cutout made so that the piece can fit. We are looking for this roof to overhang slightly, hence the additional area compared to the piece. Once cut, you can fit this atop the indoor room, and I personally angled it slight to ensure that rain does not collect or build up.
5. Ad blue duct tape to the board and cover all pieces on the floor to create the seemingly aquatic and blue environment this particular design will inhabit.

The circuit box is a relatively straightforward and simple design. Just involves the creation of a rectangular prism that can house the Arduino and has some cutouts in order to run the wires and the power connection for the Arduino and for the lights that will be added to the design.

1. Create 4 identical rectangular peices of the dimensions 10 inches by 2 inches, 3 of which you should glue together.
2. Make 2 small 0.125 x 0.125 incisions at the top of the vertically standing the piece that will be facing the board/house.
3. Make one small circular incision on the other vertically standing piece, towards the right.
4. Cut 2 small pieces for the pother sides out as well, the dimensions of those should be 1.75 inches by 1.875 inches. For one end create a small cutout on the button left and insert both of those pieces, the one with a cutout being positioned on the left and the one that is whole being on the right
5. Insert and position the Arduino circuit within the enclosure and insert the wires for the servo through them, with the Arduino power or coding insert being inserted on the side as well. Once this is positioned, glue it down or secure it.
6. Next step involves adding lighting. This is a seemingly simple task as well, simply take the LED strip that you have, which I had around 10 feet of with 1 inch spacing, and then circle all of the base areas on the Fluidome structure to represent the external flood lighting and emergency system. I did not use all 10 feet, I used around 6 and the rest of the strip I cut for use in another project.
7. Optionally, you can add a USB solar panel as well to siphon electrical power for the particular system, which I added on the second floor and then routed so it moves down and into the enclosure. This USB solar panel didn't work the best, but it is an optional addition to get closer to the real design that would use this form of sustainable energy and it helps to show how the emergency lighting and flood lighting can be stored and released.
8. Once you have finished the LEDs, connect the LED strips to the power supply, which is housed within the enclosure that can be placed at the base of the design or in the circuit box. The circular cutout was poised for this addition and you can simple insert the power supply wire into the LED control enclosure and then have a lighting solution with no loose wires or such. This is a representation of underwater cables and transmission.

1. Create a 8.75 inch diameter and cut it out of the foamboard
2. Create 16 identical quarter-circles that are 4.375 inches in length and 3 inches in height.
3. I did this in steps, initially adding 4, then another 4 to get to 8 and then 8 more to get to 16.
4. This ensured equal spacing and an overall smooth dome.
5. I opted to not go for an external enclosure simple because it would not be as smooth as anticipated for the physical model and after trying it, I opted for this representation. However, this would be covered in the actual design if implemented.
6. Once this particular piece is dome, simple position it atop the circle that was established in the previous step. I crated another fitting mechanism with a larger enclosure with a smaller inner piece, similar to the connection between the first floor and the base, but this was simple for modularity and demonstrating design. This is completely optional, and you can easily just skip this step if desired.
7. At this point, the design is complete, and you should have a whole and good representation of the structure and how it would look when implemented.

Throughout this Instructable, I walked through the process by which I designed this piece on paper, on CAD, and through foamboard and circuits, but all of these phases pale in comparison to physical application, which is what the paper helps to express. Linked below, I have included a paper I wrote on the efficacy of this design and how this structure would be implemented into society and the different principles substantiating its use.

Completing this paper is crucial as it substantiates the feasibility and efficacy of Fluidome as a resilient housing solution. It consolidates all research, design processes, and prototyping efforts into a comprehensive document that outlines the design rationale, engineering principles applied, and empirical data gathered.

Fluidome exemplifies how innovation in architecture and engineering can lead to sustainable, disaster-resistant housing solutions. Together, we can build a future where architecture not only meets but exceeds the challenges posed by natural disasters, ensuring safety, sustainability, and quality of life for all. I appreciate you for your interest in my design and I would like to extend a gratitude to those who choose to read the paper as well to learn more. Lastly, I would like to also acknowledge and appreciate the work of the team at AutoDesk Instructables for hosting this competition among many others, as this competition has really allowed me to learn more about resistant housing, material selection, and civil engineering as a whole.