SUSTAINABILITY | GREEN DESIGN

"Urgent questions about the role and responsibility of architects have been circulating since the Indian Ocean tsunami killed more than 200,000 people in 2004. At that time the relief effort exposed troubling gaps between humanitarian aid that targets the short term and our ability to rebuild homes, infrastructure, and communities well. While aid agencies are willing, they do not have an architect�fs knowledge or insights; consequently, the buildings that replace destroyed communities are frequently unsafe.

Unfortunately, this is as true today as it was seven years ago. However corrupt or appalling the politics (and policies) behind the catastrophes in Sichuan and Haiti, professional architects—whether in the developing or developed world— are notably absent from efforts to protect people from disaster. Yet architects have recently been very active in other areas of public interest—for example, they have instigated a range of creative strategies to improve social, environmental, and economic equity, some of which have become books about how to alter the way we think about the design process. But in extreme circumstances, in crises, architects offer no coherent response. They play no sustained role in shaping policy and have had little active presence or voice in leading best practices in disaster prevention, mitigation, and recovery. There is still no career path that prepares students to work as urgentistes—design professionals who intervene at a crucial moment in the recovery process to produce enduring solutions.

Which is precisely why this book is about the architects who are helping save lives. Innovative, fascinating work is being done by small teams of outstanding professionals in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the United States, who are proving to be critical, relevant partners helping communities recover from disaster and rebuild. The highly skilled architects and leaders in other fields who have so generously contributed to this book are providing resilient solutions that ensure the safety of new homes and bring coherence to land-use planning. These teams assess damage but also research innovative building technologies. They are at the forefront of the use of low-cost, energy-saving, environmentally sound materials and new methods of prefabrication. They have discovered ways to bring affordable high-tech solutions to vulnerable communities. These teams are experts in how best to bridge the gap that separates shortterm emergency needs from long-term sustainable recovery. And they are experienced in helping reduce future risk, promote awareness, and protect relief investment. Admittedly, this level of expertise is rare, concentrated in the hands of far too few professionals working worldwide.

Beyond Shelter is a call to action. When I started writing this book and searched for practicing architects skilled at working with risk almost everyone asked me the same question: why architects? As if to say, what is it to us? At the conference Risques Majeurs 2008 (Major Risks 2008) sponsored by the European Union, two or three architects were present. The officials and ministers I spoke with reminded me that on average architects contribute to only 3 percent of the world�fs built environment. Their indifference—or worse, irrelevance—to the world�fs most vulnerable communities made them seem hardly worth talking about. Three percent is a terrible number.

But if not architects and planners, who is in charge of rebuilding towns and villages leveled by earthquakes and cyclones? The answer is disquieting: no one is in charge. Typically, a patchwork of nongovernmental charities, government agencies, and residents themselves cobble together solutions. In large-scale disasters, even when aid pours in, the expertise and planning infrastructure needed to make best use of the money are lacking."

- Excerpted from the Preface by Marie J. Aquilino

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE
Beyond Shelter: Architecture and Human Dignity by Marie J. Aquilino

INTRODUCTION
The Architecture of Risk by Victoria L. Harris

ARCHITECTURE AFTER DISASTER
Learning from Aceh by Andrea Fitrianto
Beyond Shelter in the Solomon Islands by Andrea Nield
News from the Teardrop Island by Sandra D’Urzo
From Transitional to Permanent Shelter: Invaluable Partnerships in Peru by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

WHAT SHOULD GOVERNMENTS DO?
When People Are Involved by Thiruppugazh Venkatachalam
Citizen Architects in India by Rupal and Rajendra Desai
What about Our Cities? Rebuilding Muzaffarabad by Maggie Stephenson, Sheikh Ahsan Ahmed, and Zahid Amin

URBAN RISK AND RECOVERY
Below the Sill Plate: New Orleans East Struggles to Recover by Deborah Gans with James Dart
Slumlifting: An Informal Toolbox for a New Architecture by Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner
Sustainable Communities: Avoiding Disaster in the Informal City by Arlene Lusterio
Camouflaging Disaster: 60 Linear Miles of Local Transborder Urban Conflict by Teddy Cruz
Cultural Heritage and Disaster Mitigation: A New Alliance by Rohit Jigyasu

ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE
Green Recovery by Anita van Breda and Brittany Smith
The Home as the World: Tamil Nadu by Jennifer E. Duyne Barenstein
Design as Mitigation in the Himalayas by Francesca Galeazzi
On Beauty, Architecture, and Crisis: The Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan by Raul Pantaleo

TEACHING AS STRATEGIC ACTION
Cultivating Resilience: The BaSiC Initiative by Sergio Palleroni
Studio 804 in Greensburg, Kansas by Dan Rockhill and Jenny Kivett
Sustainable Knowledge and Internet Technology by Mehran Gharaati, Kimon Onuma, and Guy Fimmers

IS PREVENTION POSIBLE?
More to Lose: The Paradox of Vulnerability by John Norton and Guillaume Chantry
Building Peace across African Frontiers by Robin Cross and Naomi Handa Williams
Haiti 2010: Reports from the Field by Marie J. Aquilino

AFTERWORD
Open Letter to Architects, Engineers, and Urbanists by Patrick Coulombel

---