That's what a traditional house looks like in the Philippines, which is hit every year with horrible typhoons, so the idea is even if the water levels reach three feet your home is all right. And with good reason; every now and then Ate Neneng asks me to scour the internet for news articles, videos, and pictures for the latest Manila flooding. Except it's difficult because I get the Manila flooding of '09. Or '12. Or the one that happened last month. And the month before that.

Thanks to the Spanish and American influence, Filipinos have moved away from this type of structure to something more western: ground floor, basements, concrete. Those were designed in a temperate zone and are completely useless in this situation. Ate Neneng annually has to send money to the Philippines to pay for the flood damage. Looking at that picture though, I have to wonder how great the traditional houses are. For one, it looks like it will blow away if hit with high winds. Mom has told me that once she saw a straw roof get ripped off during a storm.

However with modern architectural knowledge, I think the stilts thing could still work. I mean, we've developed skyscrapers that can sway in an earthquake; why can't we create a stilted house that's well grounded, can sway during a storm, and sans the grass roof? Why hasn't this caught on in the Philippines? It's a poor country, but surely there are architects there. After the fourteenth time in one year that you're draining your house of water, surely someone has to say, "Enough is enough already."

For those of you who are wondering... sorry, I haven't updated my tumblr in a bit because it's asking me to log in again and I forgot my password and am too lazy to reset it.