2005 AsiaGSD Archive
Co-president: Eric Ho
Co-president: Rick Lam
Treasurer: Ellen Chen
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+ Conference: Tsunami+
Tsunami+
April 17th-18th, 2004. Harvard GSD.
View the introduction and agenda
In response to the mega tsunami that hid the South Asian coast in December 2004, the 2005 AsiaGSD conference aims at reexamining the mechanism of post-disaster planning, design and implementation. In particular, the conference has the aim to investigate the role of designer in this context through architecture, planning and landscape design.
After the tsunami, there is an explosion of both local and international NGOs that flock to help the affected community. Now that we have passed the emergency stage, how can designers help amidst the complexity of organizations, local partners and government officials to actual make design valuable? Is and ad-hoc system through different organizations the best way the help? Or should there be a framework and more systematic approach? If so, how can foreign and imported systems be accepted and adapted to the culture, values and customs of the local people?
We have observed very different approaches across the region with different degrees of control. While Thailand and Malaysia have a very strong governmental influence on post-disaster planning and rebuilding, Sri Lanka has yet to step up the level of organization and Indonesia is in an even worse situation because of political instability and prolonged poverty.
Are western ideologies applicable and helpful to the recovery of affected areas in this context? How should we embrace the indigenous and existing mechanisms that are intact in the countries? The context of this conference is the tsunami affected countries, but the implication of the discourse of post-disaster design and planning extends much beyond the tsunami-affected regions.
Designers cannot just focus on a single shelter or house design. They must engage themselves in the bigger picture that involves multiple parties across many platforms, negotiating with foreign ideologies and specific local conditions. A successful design should address the larger socio-economic and political condition that the delivery process of the design has the social function to jumpstart recoveries at multiple levels.
The conference brings together design practitioners, NGOs and government officials to discuss and improve the existing relief efforts implementation. It provides an opportunity for information sharing, redefinition the role of designers, and projection of future disaster mitigation.