From Temporary to Permanent; A Circular Approach for Post-disaster Housing Reconstruction

Abstract

Housing crisis is an evitable outcome of most of post-disaster scenarios due to the massive destruction they usually produce. Therefore, the reconstruction process and particularly in terms of housing is considered as an evident prerequisite in handling disasters' aftermaths. Temporary accommodation alternatives have been widely assumed in a variety of post-disasters cases as a primary step of the reconstruction process. Yet despite this fact, they have been broadly criticized for being unsustainable and resource-consuming. This matter can negatively affect the recovery process of the disaster-affected communities at different levels. Those effects can be even more serious when hitting developing countries, turning them more vulnerable. Still, there is an insistent need to find a rapid action to accommodate the disaster-affected people following their displacement while reconstructing their permanent homes. This paper proposes an incremental housing strategy which could form a key part of a proactive strategy that has not been offered by conventional methods. It provides time-efficient housing construction approaches while responding to the immediate large-scale interventions. Likewise, it bridges over the two phases of temporary and permanent housing in one integral transformable process that relies on efficiency and adaptability. The paper also discusses the sustainability aspects of executing the incremental strategy and examines its qualitative outcomes that contribute to a circular built environment in disaster-disrupted communities.