Aceh Project
More than three years after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami thousands of people are living in housing projects built by various humanitarian aid agencies. Although reconstruction agencies constructed vast numbers of housing in very trying circumstances, a great deal of criticism has been levelled at many of these projects. There is clear evidence that residents have found it necessary to remodel, renovate and transform their house to suit their own and broader community needs. This may well suggest that the reconstruction agencies ‘missed their mark’ by providing ill-conceived housing types.
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| Before modification | After modification |
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| Before modification | After modification |
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| Before modification | After modification |
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| Before modification | After modification |
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| Before modification | After modification |
Although there have been many evaluations and studies of post-tsunami housing, very few have attempted to understand the nature and quality of the transformed houses and draw lessons from them. Critiques of the agency-built housing are abundant but all fail to look at the capacity and initiative of households to transform and adapt the housing. Why must the beneficiaries of this housing transform their houses? What needs are not met through the standardised house? Can particular types improve the capacity for residents to transform their house? What type of architectural language do these transformed houses demonstrate? Do these houses require residents to create new lifestyles? Is there scope for incorporating disaster risk reduction into the transformation process? Perhaps most significantly, what lessons does such transformation offer that can inform future policy and practice in the field of post-disaster housing reconstruction?
Listen to an ABC radio interview about this project.