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.

EXISTING SHELTER DESIGN. Most importantly, relief housing design is primarily about meeting functional requirements rather than any aesthetic intention.  Several examples outlined here represent the relative breadth of disaster relief housing.

Paper Log House. Shigeru Ban is a Japanese architect that has pioneered the use of paper tubes in building construction.  His  paper log houses for Kobe, Japan, Kaynasli, Turkey, and Bhuj, India were all created for refugees of significant earthquake disasters.  Ban chose local materials for foundations, such as plastic beer crates and rubble from fallen buildings.  The walls and structure were created from paper tubes that were insulated and ventilated through a number of methods, making them perform beyond the qualities of the typical tents that may have otherwise been provided.   A majority of the simple building components were recyclable and/or biodegradable.  Due to its flexible design and use of local materials, this particular model may represent the best relief housing implemented to date.

Bamboo Construction. India’s National Mission on Bamboo Applications has promoted another prototype, employed in India following the tsunamis of 2004. Utilizing bamboo construction, this organization took advantage of the availability of this local material, as well as its strength characteristics and renewability as a resource.  This represents a material choice that is both sustainable and durable.

Shipping Containers. A sturdier, transportation-oriented housing option utilizes shipping containers that can be moved via cargo ship, rail, and truck to locations in need.  Since the cost of transportation is directly related to weight and scale, these solutions prove to be extremely expensive and prohibitive to many governments and relief agencies.  The containers are also outfitted (quite excessively), with furniture, electric power, and air conditioning.  These are world class housing solutions, but are difficult and expensive to deploy in large scales.

FEMA Trailers. In the United States, victims of Hurricane Katrina still reside in FEMA trailers (recreational vehicles).  Unfortunately, a number of their occupants have developed serious health complications from the interior environments of these trailers.  Because of a lack of air circulation, harmful chemical compounds commonly found in fabrics and building materials may reach dangerous levels.  Without proper ventilation, these compounds are then inhaled by inhabitants.  Despite these problems, FEMA trailers provide the highest quality of life in disaster relief housing.  However, the usage of such relief housing is limited to the wealthiest of countries that are most capable of handling such disasters.

Tent City. The ubiquitous tent is probably the most common relief shelter.  Undoubtedly, we will see many organized tent cities in Haiti.  While tent cities offer flexible construction at a low cost, tents pose multiple problems: they lack insulation, they are unable to control the interior climate, and the structures are typically not durable beyond a year or two.  However, the ease of construction, portability, and low weight make them indispensable to relief organizations.  It is these positive characteristics that can inform new design solutions.

Commonalities. The breadth of solutions that currently exist are effective in some ways and ineffective in others.  Learning from these commonalities, the effectual characteristics should be developed during the design and implementation of all future design strategies.  Furthermore, these designs should take into account sustainability, vernacular architecture, durability, cost, and community engagement.

CONSIDERATIONS.

Sustainability. The role of sustainability should not be diminished, even in times of disaster.  The environmental impact of transportation, construction, and disposal of relief housing must be fully considered.  The shelter itself should respond to its climate in a way that does not require additional measures of heating or cooling.  Solutions should be fully reusable or biodegradable, and local materials should be used whenever possible.  Even for temporary solutions, the creation of refugee communities should fully consider its impact on local site ecologies, while balancing the very immediate needs of refugees.

Vernacular design. Vernacular architecture is developed by local societies over hundreds (if not thousands) of years, responding to cultural considerations and the demands of the local climate.  Any prototypical design would preferably adapt to vernacular considerations.  This could result in a physical manifestation that accommodates specific cultural practices and typical family sizes. As an example, Shigeru Ban modified the size of his paper log house design to accommodate larger family sizes in different countries.  Vernaculars can also inform factors such as ventilation, insulation, and weather resistance.  Architectural solutions that respond to vernacular traditions are an effective way to address local cultural and climatic requirements.

Durability. Durability is critical to successful relief housing.  The governmental response and implementation of long term housing is often unreliable and slow to develop.  Years after Hurricane Katrina, displaced residents still demand long term affordable housing from the US government.   Thus, housing must be able to withstand years of human use and weather conditions without degradation.

Low Cost. Currently, the cost of relief housing is most directly tied to its transportation costs.  If materials are arriving from other regions, the lighter and more compact construction materials will require lower shipping costs, ultimately resulting in the ability to provide a greater number of residential units.  When shipping prefabricated units may be economically infeasible for a crisis, a tent design may be a more economic solution.

Community Engagement. Motivating a workforce, employing refugees, and encouraging engagement in the recovery effort can perhaps be the most positive result in the construction of disaster relief housing.  Using international funding to deploy and construct temporary housing could be quite effective at reenergizing a local workforce and economy.  One could imagine a program similar to that put forth by the UN for the clearing of Haitian infrastructure. These so called work-for-cash programs would promote the creation of local jobs by engaging the disaster refugees as participants of the reconstruction effort: increasing morale, community ownership, and cooperation with relief agencies.  It is this type of strategy for which Architecture for Humanity’s Cameron Sinclair advocates.   A simply constructed residential unit could support such a program.

THE FUTURE. The future design of disaster relief housing should be responsive to many of the concerns outlined here.   If climate predictions are accurate, the future displacement of populations to natural disaster will only increase, as will the global demand for relief housing.  It is necessary to urgently develop housing solutions that efficiently respond to these crises.  Proposed relief housing designs must be rapidly deployable, cheap, responsive to climate and vernacular traditions, and sustainable.  Hopefully, with further engagement from the design community, a number of prototypes can be developed that will improve the lives of refugees around the world.