Through 12 case studies from Australia, Bangladesh, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the USA, this book focuses on the housing reconstruction process after an earthquake, tsunami, cyclone, flood or fire. Design of post-disaster housing is not simply replacing the destroyed house but, as these case studies highlight, a means to not only build a safer house but also a more resilient community; not to simply return to the same condition as before the disaster, but an opportunity for building back better.

The book explores two main themes:

• Housing reconstruction is most successful when involving the users in the design and construction process
• Housing reconstruction is most effective when it is integrated with community infrastructure, services and the means to create real livelihoods.

The case studies included in this book highlight work completed by different agencies and built environment professionals in diverse disaster-affected contexts. With a global acceleration of natural disasters, often linked to accelerating climate change, there is a critical demand for robust housing solutions for vulnerable communities.

This book provides professionals, policy makers and community stakeholders working in the international development and disaster risk management sectors, with an evidence-based exploration of how to add real value through the design process in housing reconstruction. Herein then, the knowledge we need to build, an approach to improve our processes, a window to understanding the complex domain of post-disaster housing reconstruction.
About the Author:

Esther Charlesworth is Associate Professor and the Director of the Humanitarian Architecture Research Bureau (HARB) in the School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Esther is the Founding Director of Architects Without Frontiers (AWF). Her most recent book, Humanitarian Architecture: 15 Stories of Architects Working after Disaster, was published by Routledge in 2014.

Iftekhar Ahmed is a Research Fellow in the Humanitarian Architecture Research Bureau (HARB), School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. His research interests span the areas of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, urbanisation and community development.