Conclusions
The performance under disaster duress of reinforced concrete shell houses has been demonstrated by real-life experience with houses built on the island of Guam. They have survived, without damage, some through up to fifty years of battering by tornado force winds and important earthquakes. This is because they have followed a design philosophy of building the entire house as a box-rigid-frame that creates a complete monolithic concrete structure rather than separate wall, floor and roof elements connected by a variety of debatable techniques. Rather than building a storm shelter inside a house, the entire house becomes a storm shelter.
A number of DRS houses on the island of Guam have also been constructed with total cast-in-place concrete methods as well as with tilt-up panels.
Prefabricating some or all of the elements in a factory offers the possibility of faster field assembly and more sophisticated methods of quality control.
The introduction of molded foam forming elements into concrete construction practice over the past three decades brings an essential degree of energy-conserving practicality to reinforced concrete home construction not generally available in earlier years.