Problem Background

The speed of natural disaster rebuilding strategies seem to have been unplanned for with no direct preparation to help rebuild in a quick and efficient manner.  All over the world, natural disasters are occurring at any given time, which makes planning for very difficult due to the fact that there is no complete warning as to when they are going to happen.  Because there are also so many different types of natural disasters, it is difficult to plan for each one under one direct strategy because of the different conditions in each disaster prone area. Meaning that soil conditions will be different, temperatures will be different, the resources that are available in those prone areas are different, as well as a bunch of variables that can affect the way a building is constructed.  There needs to be a prototype that has the ability to be interchangeably ready to formulate with any type of natural disaster.  Another difficulty is how you prepare for reconstruction in multiple environments while still being able to keep the distinctive cultural characterizations of the community.   It is important that people are still able to identify themselves with their culture and place of residence even after a natural disaster occurs because when they do, there is a possibility that those distinctions may be lost.  A sense of place provides people with comfort and reassurance of personal security in their community.  These problems have become apparent in the fact that people are in need still to this day from Hurricane Katrina where the housing structures seem to have taken very long to rebuild with a lack of their cultural affinity.

Creating a housing structure prototype that can be provided right away for people is quintessential.   The problem is it has to incorporate all different aspects of each disaster prone environment individually, so the prototype must have the ability to transform depending on the location to which it is to be built.

Thesis Statement:

My thesis proposal consists of designing a temporary housing prototype that will provide people with their immediate housing needs post natural disaster, where that temporary prototype once built will then have the ability to develop and mature into a permanent housing structure over time in order to allow the users to create a distinct place of residence to which they are accustomed to.

Framework and Objectives:

            In order to prepare for designing a prototype, there needs to be complete research in all different kinds of natural disasters in order to even see if creating one transformative prototype will be able to be developed.  It might be more sensible to plan a separate prototype for each disaster individually, but if there is a possibility it can be developed for all, aiming to do so would be a starting point for design.  While researching that information, it also would be imperative to find out where the main points of disaster prone areas are, that way finding sustainable building materials that are within a close range of the area can be used in order to cut down costs. As well, I plan to research more into bamboo and to the whereabouts it grows, because bamboo has many positive attributes that may be very beneficial for the amount of time it takes to provide people with housing immediately.  Bamboo takes 3 to 7 years to reach its full potential strength which can shorten the amount of time it takes on waiting to be able to cultivate and re-grow materials.