While it's an important book about building in the face of climate disaster it's not a book for the average person who could never afford to build anything like this. It's a book aimed at professionals building for the wealthy and elite who can afford to ride out disaster while causing many of the problems the book is lamenting.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This is a book about building homes in preparation for natural disasters due to climate change. Interesting and looks expensive.

A great little book! We have to accept the fact that the climate is changing, and start preparing our homes for the "coming storm". The author does just that, explaining the practice of "resilient design", "building homes to stand up to, and rebound from, extreme weather conditions". Thompson breaking the book down into sections for water (floods, tsunamis, rain); earth (quakes, mudslides); and fire (wildfires). He identifies specific homes that have been designed to combat each weather event. The architects for each home have used specific practices to minimize the disasters.
Each section has many photographs, and is filled with ideas of how to better design homes to help mitigate the weather events.
It's an easy to read book, with lots of ideas. Really thought provoking!
I am encouraged that others are seeing the need for better building standards. Florida has adopted hurricane standards, California for earthquakes, Colorado for fire-safe requirements.
I highly recommend this book to anyone thinking of building a home, buying a home, or wanting to retrofit their own homes.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advance copy of Designing for Disaster. This is a detailed and timely book in this current era of global climate change. The author examines how these changes affect the human approach to planning and building shelters. The profiles of the homes featured in the book include text that provide in-depth explanations of the choices that were made in the construction of the residence, accompanied by beautiful photographs with captions. I enjoyed reading about the thought and consideration that go into designing homes that take into account a region's weather patterns and environment and use resources responsibly, yet manage to create and maintain aesthetic spaces, indoors and out. While I could probably never afford one of these homes, I would hope that the ideas and architectural principles could translate to designing more affordable "disaster-ready" homes for everyone.

Designing for Disaster provides an in-depth look at how architecture (specifically domestic architecture) is changing in the face of global climate change and the extreme weather which follows as a result. Released 28th Sept 2019 by Schiffer, it's 176 pages and available in hardcover format.

The book is full of clear, accessible photos and easy to understand text. The introduction includes some sobering statistics about natural catastrophes and their consequences. It makes a compelling argument for active preparation instead of responding after the fact.

The following chapters are arranged thematically around specific weather/natural dangers: water, earth, fire, and wind. The rest of the book contains links for further reading, and a resource list of higher end architectural firms. I was surprised to find that the book didn't include an index.

This book showcases -very- high end domestic architecture. There are numerous drool-worthy interior and exterior shots. The grotto indoor/outdoor pool with waterfall feature in one home had me swooning. Nearly all of these homes are ultra-modern architecture and with a very modern aesthetic; lots of glass and steel, exposed beams, pared down features, glass walls, etc.

Beautiful book, it would make a good support text for project engineering/design/architecture students, or people looking for inspiration in their own home design.

Four stars.

This is a helpful and fascinating look at how architects have successfully built houses designed to withstand natural disasters and climate change. Thomson goes into why this matters at the start of the book, with sobering but honest talk about the alarming rise of "100 year storms" and climate chaos related to climate change. The bad news is that we can't really undo most of what has been put in motion, and severe storms and rising sea levels will be the new normal -- and already are. He points out that Houston had 3 "500 year storms" in 3 years and as many as 25% of Florida homes may be underwater by 2100 (Boston is another city that's looking dire). Further, he warns that scientists estimate that a house built now to last 50 years has a 50% chance of being hit by a natural disaster of some type.

What follows are examples of houses that have been built to withstand floods, tornadoes, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes and more. Thompson goes into great detail about how they were designed and with what modifications, and there are many photos of each house. In some cases, the designs have already worked. One straw bale house in a fire zone withstood a fire that swept right through the property, for instance, leaving only pink stains on some exterior walls (straw bale houses are not just environmentally friendly and inexpensive, but they are surprisingly fire resistant).

The end of the book lists resources for learning recommendations for various type of disaster preparation in home building, along with contact information for the designers and other helpful agencies.

The bad news about the book is that it's really designed for very wealthy people who are building their own homes. While some examples of disaster preparation listed were inexpensive (one example said that the tornado modifications recommended cost about the cost of installing granite countertops), this is not a do-it-yourself kind of book and the houses featured are generally those of incredibly wealthy people. It also doesn't really tell YOU how to do this stuff, as much as give examples of people who had their architects design this stuff.

All that said, this is a fantastic book about a subject that is needed now more than ever. Anyone looking at building or remodeling a home should take this topic into consideration, as there's not really anyplace that doesn't have to deal with the risk of one natural disaster or another, and with much more regularity these days.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

This was a cool look at some interesting (mostly all ultra-modern and no doubt VERY expensive) architectural homes built to withstand the ever-intensifying effects of climate change (rising sea levels, stronger storms, more frequent wildfires). I loved all of the photographs, and the small sidebars scattered throughout the book added specifics that would've been lacking.