Lafarge North America Sponsors National Building Museum's Designing for Disaster Exhibition

Multimedia exhibition will showcase innovative research, cutting-edge materials and technologies, and disaster-resistant designs for creating safer, more durable and disaster-resilient communities.

Lafarge North America, the largest diversified supplier of construction materials in the United States and Canada, announced that it is the lead sponsor of the exhibition Designing for Disaster at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Designing for Disaster will discuss disaster mitigation as an evolving science and highlight tools and strategies for building safer, stronger and more disaster-resilient communities that are functional, pragmatic and beautiful. Through unique objects, captivating graphics and multimedia — including video testimonials — the exhibition will explore new solutions for, and historical responses to, a range of natural hazards including earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, storm surges, flooding, sea level rises, tsunamis and wildfires. The exhibition also will highlight a variety of residential, commercial and institutional facilities, as well as public transportation systems, throughout the United States that are designed to address at least one hazard in an exemplary way.

"As a leading provider of sustainable, high-performance solutions for building better cities, Lafarge is committed to driving innovation and supporting collaborative dialogues on disaster-resistant design approaches for creating a safer, more durable and resilient built environment," said Maik Strecker, vice president of marketing for Lafarge U.S. "We are proud to serve as the lead sponsor of this educational initiative at the National Building Museum to foster public awareness and understanding of engineering and construction strategies for protecting life and property against a wide range of natural hazards."

Designing for Disaster will open May 11, 2014, and remain on view through Aug. 2, 2015. Artifacts from past disasters will express the destructive, persistent, life-altering power of nature. Not to be missed are a FEMA-specified "safe room" built to withstand tornado-force winds and a "wall of wind" that invites visitors to test various roof profiles against simulated hurricane-force winds. To complement the exhibition, the National Building Museum and its partners have planned a full slate of public programming. Topics include the effects of hurricanes in urban areas, the Rebuild by Design project that hopes to revitalize the region affected by Hurricane Sandy, the rising waters of the Chesapeake Bay, the importance of resilient landscapes and more. Visit www.nbm.org to purchase tickets to the exhibition online and to learn more about the additional public programing being planned.