The Warrego Typhoon Proof Bungalow, a house built to withstand high winds and severe storms.

The Warrego Typhoon Proof Bungalow is not a conventional house. It uses a different way of thinking about structure, load paths, and survival in extreme weather.

This introduction explains:

• Why the design works
• Where the real strength comes from
• What must NEVER be changed
• What CAN be adapted safely

The Warrego Bungalow concept was based on a 128 sq/meter Bungalow I built on the southern Island of Mindanao in the Philippines back in 2014 when I lived over there.

The original Bungalow was built simply to test the feasibility of building a house utilising Jig built 2.4meter by 1.2 meter wall modules.

The original Bungalow we called the 'Bandera'. It was named after the Barangay (Brgy), the administrative area where it was built.

The idea for the individual wall modules was borrowed from a Rowhouse development in the same area. Refer photo below. Philippine Row-houses

The Wall module concept lends itself perfectly to owner built houses where the house can be constructed by non tradesmen which can reduce the labour cost significantly.

The individual wall modules can all be assembled on a Jig Table, ensuring exact, easy to assemble wall units continually and quickly.

The Warrego differed from the basic Bandera Bungalow in a few significant ways. Firstly, the exterior walls must be built much more robustly than what is needed in the Bandera model. The Bandera was not intended for cyclonic conditions. Also the roof of the Bandera need only be constructed from timber roof trusses of the Gable style. The Warrego requires a steel framed roof system to the hip design of a slope of 22 degrees, which vastly reduces wind suction forces on the roof.

The Bandera was built using local untrained labour. They simply learnt by the 'monkey see, monkey do' principle. Even though I spoke just a little of their language, and they had no English, we managed to communicate very well. If I had any difficulty getting a meaning across, I simply phoned my wife who is a Filipina, told her what to say and handed the phone to the smarter of my workers, problem solved. 

We finished that Bungalow in record time at a massive saving over having it built by a building company.

My crew laid out and boxed the foundation slab, and I had a local company do the pour.

The details of construction of the later version of the Bandera differ only in certain details which were an improvement over the original, The project was in affect a great school for all of us.

I had a local Building Contractor friend draw up the design and get all the needed approvals, I did the rest.

Refer fotos: