Catastrophe aid structure is a crucial part of humanitarian support, within the face of sustained pure and human-made tragedies throughout the globe. For so long as folks and communities are displaced and in want of shelter and safety, architects and designers will proceed to consider modern methods to assist them. Paradoxically, given each the growing requirement for, and the huge provision of, essential catastrophe aid design, this matter is horrifically and mercifully broad in close to equal measure. Here’s a high-level overview of what we find out about simply among the options and methods serving to these within the wake of unthinkable tragedy.
What’s catastrophe aid structure?
Christchurch Cardboard Cathedral, 2013 New Zealand – the architect received the 2024 Praemium Imperiale Structure Award, the place the jury praised his professional bono and catastrophe aid constructions, akin to this one, which was constructed after the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch
(Picture credit score: Stephen Goodenough)
In easy phrases, this sort of structure refers to each the short- and long-term provision of shelters and infrastructure designed to assist folks and communities affected by disasters. That covers the whole lot from warfare, wildfires and earthquakes to extreme climate occasions akin to storms, hurricanes and floods.
Catastrophe aid structure: the fundamentals
At one finish of the catastrophe aid design spectrum are the constructions supposed for instant use – simply transportable emergency shelters which can be fast to assemble, secure and sustainable. Not restricted to short-term houses, they prolong to wider neighborhood amenities together with make-shift colleges, hospitals and social hubs. On the different finish of the spectrum are the masterplans, rebuild programmes and authorities methods aiding restoration, addressing mitigation in opposition to future disasters and respiratory new life into impacted areas on a long-term foundation.
Methods and approaches
Catastrophe design is each emotionally and virtually difficult – particularly in terms of the deployment of instant options. Hurdles embody excessive time constraints, restricted sources and budgets and unpredictable, typically distant environments. That is the place versatile methods come into their very own. There are efficient options which have already stood the check of time, akin to Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s paper and paper log homes. These short-term shelters had been first deployed again in 1995 in response to a devastating earthquake in Kobe, Japan. Since then, Ban’s waterproof and fire-retardant paper tube constructions have been utilized in varied guises following disasters throughout the globe. Most just lately, his paper partition system – designed to supply privateness and dignity to evacuees – was put in place following the 2025 LA wildfires.
‘Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log Home’ is proven at The Glass Home in New Canaan, USA
(Picture credit score: Michael Biondo)
Then there are extra tailor-made approaches centered on the precise wants of a specific neighborhood, akin to Marina Tabassum Architects’ Khundi Bari constructions. Designed expressly for the marginalised inhabitants of Bangladesh in 2020, these two-level, flood-resistant bamboo structure and metal modular shelters had been constructed for the inhabitants dwelling on the sand beds of the river Meghna. The structural system has since been scaled as much as create bigger constructions and neighborhood centres within the nation’s refugee camps.
Khudi Bari by Marina Tabassum on the Vitra Campus
(Picture credit score: Julien Lanoo)
For Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari, humanitarian design is rooted in what she calls Barefoot Social Structure – a philosophy that champions neighborhood empowerment, sustainability and cultural relevance over high-tech options. Slightly than support fashions that create dependency, she promotes coaching native communities to construct their very own houses and infrastructure. Via this mannequin, she has pledged to allow the development of 1 million flood-resilient houses utilizing bamboo, lime and earth in response to the floods that hit Pakistan in 2022, displacing 22 million folks and destroying over 500,000 houses.
Yasmeen Lari, RIBA Royal Gold Medalist 2023, outdoors her Zero Carbon Ladies Centre on Bamboo Stilts, Moak Sharif, Tando Allahyar
(Picture credit score: Zero Carbon Ladies Centre on BHeritage Basis of Pakistan)
On a extra strategic, authorities stage, varied methods to sort out catastrophe aid on a longer-term scale have been deployed. One being calculated deregulation. In response to the LA wildfires earlier this yr, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, pledged to waive or speed up sluggish regulatory processes to hurry up the rebuilding effort. Momentary measures had been additionally put in place to assist displaced communities by permitting secondary housing items akin to leisure autos, tiny houses and modular constructions on residential tons for 3 years.
A person sifts via the wreckage of his residence after it was destroyed by the Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles
(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Authorities responses to disasters have additionally resulted in structure centered on future mitigation. In June 2013, simply 8 months after Hurricane Sandy flooded 17% of New York Metropolis destroying or damaging 650,000 houses, President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Activity Pressure launched Rebuild by Design, a contest in partnership with US housing and City Improvement (HUD) to search out, and partially fund, modern options to guard the town from future extreme climate occasions. The ensuing Bjarke Ingels Group-designed BIG U barrier and flood defence system working across the tip of Decrease Manhattan has sparked comparable coastal resiliency plans in San Francisco and Miami.
Visualisation of the Bjarke Ingels Group-designed BIG U, a part of the studio’s ‘hedonistic sustainability’ mission
(Picture credit score: Bjarke Ingels Group)
And, over in southern Turkey, the place 80% of the Hatay province is being rebuilt following a significant earthquake in February 2023, the Türkiye Design Council is working alongside Foster + Companions on a 30km masterplan designed not solely to reenvision the area however to construct again ‘on secure land.’ The plan proposes protected zones across the waterbed and accounts for projected rises in water ranges to designate new buildable land.
Notable examples
Casa Eva by Fernanda Canales
Casa Eva, a low value housing designed by Fernanda Canales
(Picture credit score: Rafael Gamo)
A challenge born as an answer for a household who misplaced their residence throughout an earthquake in Mexico in 2017. The home by Fernanda Canales was designed as a part of a a lot wider initiative to reward important housing – all constructed utilizing simply concrete blocks and regionally sourced wooden – to marginalised folks.
Momentary shelters by Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban shelter designs, offering catastrophe aid in Turkey, Syria and Ukraine, utilise pure supplies
(Picture credit score: Shigeru Ban Architects)
A Shigeru Ban shelter design was unveiled in 2023 to assist the victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquake. The Pritzker Prize-winning architect’s studio labored with the Voluntary Architects’ Community to supply a Paper Partition System to evacuation centres. The straightforward system has already been used previously, having supplied privateness to these in evacuation centres set as much as support victims of the Nice East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016 and the Hokkaido Earthquake in 2018.
Important Properties Analysis Venture by The Norman Foster Basis and Holcim
(Picture credit score: Mika Cartier)
In 2023, the Norman Foster Basis, working with Swiss constructing supplies big Holcim, launched the Important Properties Analysis Venture and got here up with a quick-build, design-led concrete cabin that guarantees displaced populations a extra dignified, secure, strong and longer-lasting shelter.
The Maidan Tent by Bonaventura Visconti di Modrone and Leo Bettini Oberkalmsteiner
A social hub designed to ‘counteract the psychological trauma of displacement’ in collaboration with the UN Worldwide Organisation for Migration and put in as a make-shift neighborhood centre at a refugee camp in Greece in 2018.
New Clark Metropolis by Broadway Malayan
(Picture credit score: Broadway Malayan)
A improvement north of Manila, on a web site naturally much less vulnerable to flooding and extra resilient to earthquakes on account of distinctive topography and altitude shifts, New Clark Metropolis will develop into the brand new residence of The Nationwide Authorities Administrative Centre and a back-up HQ for The Philippines within the occasion of a pure catastrophe.
Supply: Wallpaper
