Ever since I was a child, I have had a fascination with every aspect of a natural disaster (tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes). I remember being glued to the television every April, due to the extreme weather, in the hopes that I would be able to witness a tornado or major flooding. In addition, I would spend hours on end watching the history and discovery channel to try and learn why natural disasters occur, the destruction they could cause, and what events occurred afterward.
I recently graduated from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale newly accredited architectural masters program. During our junior and senior studios, we designed projects (community center, elementary school, and environmental center) for the area most dramatically affected area by Hurricane Katrina, The Lower Ninth Ward. In addition, we visited New Orleans and Brad Pitt’s “Make It Right” houses. While conveying a site analysis for our projects, I noticed that displaced people were still living in FEMA trailers four years after Hurricane Katrina.
Displaced individuals waithing for pubic transportation alongside a highway
An aerial perspective of the flooding Hurricane Katrina’s surge caused in New Orleans
On August 28th 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the United States third deadliest hurricane, flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, killed 1,800 people, damaged 275,000 homes, and left 650,000 people temporary homeless. In addition, it began to reveal the unpreparedness of FEMA and our country during the occurrence of a natural disaster
An image of a FEMA trailer next to a ravaged home
After I personally viewed and researched FEMA’s molasses-like actions in providing 650,000 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005, I realized that our government’s actions could have been viewed, by some people, as neglectful. To make matters worse, a large number of the 119,000 trailers post-Katrina incorporated materials that produced off gassing of formaldehyde. Therefore, FEMA’s attempt to supply the 650,000 displaced households with temporary housing was short of satisfactory. With the occurrence and magnitude of natural disasters increasing, whether it is a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake, there is a large number of people that are forced into homelessness every year. These displaced people are in need of temporary sheltering to aid them while seeking permanent housing. Therefore, I wanted to use the knowledge I have gained in college to attempt to replace the FEMA trailer as the main nationwide sheltering option
In addition, after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA created trailer parks that did many things: they packed trailers in like sardines, created unsafe standards, and made people embarrassed to live in such areas. Therefore, in addition to creating a temporary shelter, there is a need for a pre-designed post-disaster shelter village. The village will give the inhabitants all the amenities, security, and accessibility needed for temporary living, as well as making the displaced families feel welcome to stay in the village. With the occurrence of natural disasters increasing, so is the need to find a nationwide solution to housing displaced individuals that combine fast construction, cost effectiveness, and green aspects. In addition, by utilizing interchangeable elements, the displaced families would gain some control; therefore, the research had lead to a post-disaster temporary shelter. The proposed thesis project attempts to do three things: to fit a shelter design to the needs of the users, to fit a shelter design to the needed environment, and to design a shelter village.
The next blog posting will include the first of two elements that were researched before designing the proposed shelter design.
No comments:
Post a Comment