Designing for Disaster, an Exhibit at the National Building Museum in D.C.

Everyone is familiar with the sweeping aerial shots after a natural disaster that show unbelievable amounts of destruction. Roofs blown away, trees scattered, entire buildings reduced to piles of rubble. A new exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., Designing for Disaster, takes a look at these natural disasters, the damage they cause and what can be done to prepare our infrastructure for these threats.

“We can build for disaster,” the exhibit explains. Disasters are inevitable, but we have the technology and resources to protect people and infrastructure from the damage they can cause. Rethinking the way we approach a disaster, by anticipating and preparing for them, is known as preemptive emergency management.

Building for disaster is more important than ever. Climate change is already increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, and amplifying their damage when they occur. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) counted 11 national “Billion-Dollar Weather/Climate Disasters” in 2012, the second-highest total for both number of events and total damage (adjusted for inflation) since NOAA began keeping track in 1980.

Five hazard mitigation techniques highlighted by the exhibit include planning and public policy, system and infrastructure improvements, the dissemination of public information, and emergency services. The combination of these preventative measures can help mitigate damage and loss of life during a natural disaster.

The United States’ diverse geography and large size means that it faces the threat of many different natural disasters, from hurricanes and earthquakes to tornados and blizzards. Each of these events poses its own threats.

The exhibit describes the destruction that can be caused by earth, wind, fire and water and what can be done to protect against this damage. Interactive and tactile displays illustrate both the destruction that can occur and the techniques available to build resilient infrastructure for all disaster conditions.

The Wall of Wind exhibit, for instance, allows visitors to see firsthand how different construction techniques can change a building’s ability to be resilient in the face of a natural disaster. In this interactive display visitors place different shaped roofs on a model home and then crank up a wind machine to simulate a hurricane or tornado and see which designs fare best under the harshest conditions. This simple experiment shows that small changes to the way our homes and business are built can mean the difference between resilience and destruction.

As an example of what can be done to protect against earthquakes, the exhibit features the design of the California Memorial Stadium at the University of California Berkley, which was built to shift and move with the tremors of an earthquake. A movable staircase in the center of the room swayed and moved as a simulated earthquake shook, proving that we have the innovative construction techniques to protect our buildings.

The exhibit also highlighted the importance of living in harmony with one’s environment, particularly when it comes to preparing for wildfires and floods. Keeping the natural vegetation in place, including wetlands and forests, can be one of the best ways to mitigate damage from a natural disaster.

The exhibit will be on view at the National Building Museum (401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001) until August 2, 2015.