Anytime you decide you’re going to build in a flood zone, you have to think about the worst case scenario. If a storm or other flooding event causes nearby bodies of water to rise high enough to penetrate the structure, how much damage is it going to sustain" In some parts of the world, flood risk is mitigated by elevating vulnerable buildings on stilts, or giving them the ability to float in an emergency while remaining anchored in place.
More fanciful concepts have proposed amphibious homes that can become self-contained, self-sustaining waterproof capsules. But in reality, most people living in flood-prone areas just want a normal-looking house.

A company called Larkfleet Group has offered up a potential compromise. Their elevating house concept looks entirely ordinary on any given day, rendered as a standard two-story brick residence with a compact footprint. Not a single feature of its exterior offers a single hint that the home has anything extraordinary hidden within its foundation.
The modular steel-frame design of the house sits upon steel ring beam in place of a conventional foundation, with a built-in mechanical jacking system lifting all 72 tons of its weight a full five feet above the ground in under five minutes. While a lot of flood preparation efforts, like stacking sand bags, can require hours or days of advance notice in order to be effective, this solution is virtually instantaneous. A central motor, gear box and drive shafts lift it into pla...