DISASTER RELIEF HOUSING.  The president of Haiti, Rene Preval, is living in a tent.  Or rather, he will be shortly, once they pitch it.  He is doing this in part out of necessity and partly as a show of solidarity while he makes an international appeal for 200,000 tents.  Potentially, these 200,000 tents will house as many as a million Haitian earthquake survivors.

As the Haitian relief efforts transition from rescue, food, and medical aide, to longer term reconstruction efforts like transitional and permanent housing, the world of architecture will likely revisit the design typologies of disaster relief housing.  While much of the architectural and design community is uninvolved with disaster relief housing, some architects and entrepreneurs have produced effective prototypes that serve the global community in times of need.  There are a number of considerations for the design and implementation of disaster relief housing strategies, not the least of which address sustainability, duration of use, vernacular architecture, climate, cost, and the lives of refugees impacted by the disaster.  Most importantly, many in the scientific community predict that the global climate is becoming increasingly violent and the destructive power of natural disasters will be experienced all over the globe.  It is imperative that we develop holistic methodologies for disaster relief housing, as their necessity will become more urgent. (more…)