Lao Voices

With all the news about the flooding in Laos and neighboring countries, I thought about the possibility of building a modern apartments, homes, and offices using stilt stye, suitable for the flood prone areas. As Laos is transforming into a modern nation then this is a good opportunity to use a construction technique that will keep us above water, without relocating to a higher ground.

When a saw these two apartments designed and built on stilts few meters away from the beach in Hoek Van Holland, I thought about Laos and how we can have such a building near the Mekong River, from Vientiane to Pakse. The Dutch are well known for their battle to hold back the sea and have adapted to their environment, living in an area where half of the country lies below sea level. We can take their lessons learned and create a good defense system against the changing climate of Laos. The country is prone to flooding and has experienced 24 floods on the Mekong River between 1966 to 1997. We might not win all the battles against the Mekong River but we can minimize the damages against floods and land erosion.