Continuity and change in housing and settlement patterns following a disaster
Event details
| Date | 29.11.2013 |
| Hour | 10:15 › 12:00 |
| Speaker |
Jennifer Duyne Barenstein, PhD World Habitat Research Centre, University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Continuity and change in housing and settlement patterns following a disaster
The case of post-earthquake Gujarat, India
Jennifer Duyne Barenstein, PhD
World Habitat Research Centre, University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland
www.worldhabitat.supsi.ch
EPFL, Lausanne 29 November 2013
In the aftermath of a disaster building processes are often taken over by external agencies whose approach towards reconstruction is governed by considerations such as safety, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and –¬in some cases– also by an explicit will to trigger social transformations. As a result reconstruction often entails dramatic changes in settlement location and morphologies, housing designs, building materials and construction processes. Based on an on-going research project focusing on communities’ patterns of adaptation to post-disaster relocated settlements in India the lecture will focus on people’s strategies to re-gain control over the socio-spatial organization of their villages and to transform their agency-built houses in culturally meaningful places. Pictures, maps and drawings will show that people are not passive recipients of external agencies’ often culturally insensitive project and that they have the capacity to transform externally imposed notions of appropriate housing to meet their culturally- and livelihood-specific needs. Based on a micro-level case study of a village in Gujarat it will be argued that underestimating communities’ capacity to rebuild their own houses and villages and the failure to recognise the inherent functionality of local housing and building culture often entails not only missing the opportunity to enhance their resilience but in some cases may even lead to increasing their vulnerability.
The case of post-earthquake Gujarat, India
Jennifer Duyne Barenstein, PhD
World Habitat Research Centre, University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland
www.worldhabitat.supsi.ch
EPFL, Lausanne 29 November 2013
In the aftermath of a disaster building processes are often taken over by external agencies whose approach towards reconstruction is governed by considerations such as safety, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and –¬in some cases– also by an explicit will to trigger social transformations. As a result reconstruction often entails dramatic changes in settlement location and morphologies, housing designs, building materials and construction processes. Based on an on-going research project focusing on communities’ patterns of adaptation to post-disaster relocated settlements in India the lecture will focus on people’s strategies to re-gain control over the socio-spatial organization of their villages and to transform their agency-built houses in culturally meaningful places. Pictures, maps and drawings will show that people are not passive recipients of external agencies’ often culturally insensitive project and that they have the capacity to transform externally imposed notions of appropriate housing to meet their culturally- and livelihood-specific needs. Based on a micro-level case study of a village in Gujarat it will be argued that underestimating communities’ capacity to rebuild their own houses and villages and the failure to recognise the inherent functionality of local housing and building culture often entails not only missing the opportunity to enhance their resilience but in some cases may even lead to increasing their vulnerability.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof Vincent Kaufmann, Prof Alain Nussbaumer