Resilience in postdisaster reconstruction of human settlement: An architectural perspective

Abstract

Disaster resilience is an ongoing learning process for individuals, families, communities, and society in general to prepare for, respond to, adapt to, and recover from disaster events. This capacity requires a synthesis of multiple elements, including natural, built, social, cultural, economic, and political environments. Architects are on the front line to facilitate postdisaster reconstruction of human settlement, overseeing the quality of structural and infrastructural systems to better support the various social and humanitarian recovery efforts. From the architectural perspective of disaster research and practice, this chapter examines various aspects of building resilience in human settlement. Using the post-Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction initiative in China as an example, this chapter illustrates how the lack of balance among different societal factors (such as social, economic, and cultural) in built environment reconstruction directly damages other aspects of recovery, which significantly delays the capacity-building process of resilience.