 |
|
City from Scratch
Gans and Jelacic prove you don’t have to live like a refugee.
By Laurie Manfra
The Metropolis Observed
March 2004
The New York–based architectural firm Gans and Jelacic has developed
disaster-relief housing that is more than temporary shelter. The
structures also attempt to accommodate the long-term hopes and dreams of
displaced people.
Deborah Gans and Matthew Jelacic began analyzing refugee settlements and
experiences in 1999, when they entered an Architecture for Humanity
competition that called for low-cost quick-assembly alternatives to the
white tent in response to the crises in Kosovo and Bosnia. The request
for proposals specified that the structures be capable of withstanding
two years of weather and use; in other words, the design was to be a
temporary solution to what the organization saw as a temporary
problem.
Realizing that the problem was larger in scope than the competition
guidelines recognized, the team decided to continue the project on their
own and used grant money from the Keep Walking Foundation to study the
issue firsthand. “I went to Bosnia to document the work that had
been done—to see how they handled the problem,” Jelacic says.
They found that people were attempting to construct permanent homes at
the settlements.
Of the 21 million refugees on Earth, few are actually seeking short-term
asylum. A majority of those who flee—whether to escape war,
persecution, or natural disaster—intend to establish a new life
elsewhere. And for many, returning to their homeland is never an option.
As a result refugee settlements remain in place for years, even decades,
and evolve into cities that serve as the center of commerce and exchange
within a region. “While assisted with humanitarian aid,” Gans
explains, “camps develop an economy of their own because at some
point inhabitants start gathering wood or growing their own food. People
don’t lie idle.” However, despite economic growth the camps
often remain make-shift in structure.
Gans and Jelacic want to provide the resources necessary to erect the
basic infrastructure for a sustainable community. The housing unit they
developed consists of living quarters flanked on either side by an
unfolding kitchen and bathroom. Made of scaffolding, the unit is
designed to be sheathed in materials either found at the settlement site
or provided by the UN. Its triangular shape allows the unit to better
adapt to uneven terrain, and it can be quickly and easily constructed by
a woman or elderly person with minimal assistance and few, if any,
tools. In addition to addressing the most immediate problems—the
urgent need for temporary shelter and running water—the
dwellings’ combined scaffolding forms a foundation upon which a
permanent house, and ultimately a permanent city, can be built.
“The beams are strong enough to take the weight of construction for
a house built around it,” Gans says. “You could then use it as
interior scaffolding and lay the floor beams for a higher story on top of
it.”
Gans and Jelacic believe that disaster-relief housing potentially has
widespread application—possibly as a solution to housing shortages
worldwide. “Really, what’s the difference between a refugee
and a displaced person?” Gans asks. “That’s part of our
fascination. Even though we started out with this very extreme
situation, we think ultimately it’s a normative condition,
especially if you look closely at those countries with great influxes of
people. |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
A new design for refugee housing consists of a small triangular unit
that unfolds into an eight-foot-square room. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Three different versions—high-tech ceramic, bamboo found on-site,
and cheap cardboard (above, left to right)—can be specified
depending on climate. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Two units together form basic temporary housing (above) but also serve
as scaffolding around which a more permanent solution can be built
(below). |
|
|
|
 |
|
Courtesy Gans and Jelacic |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
After civil warfare and subsequent natural
disasters wrecked havoc on the small village of Dabaab, Kenya, three
refugee camps--Hagadera, Ifo, and Dagahaley (shown above)--were
established around the area in 1992. A predominantly nomadic town,
Dabaab had a population of only 5000 permanent villagers before the
refugee camps were formed. Today, over 300,000 people inhabit the camps,
with a majority of the inhabitants having been there for over a decade.
Local planners are predicting that by the year 2020, the city will
expand considerably, encompassing the entire region colored in beige. |
|
|
|
To facilitate the movement of large quantities of
goods and people, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees
typically lays out a camp like this one. The main port and airport are
situated near the river (on the left). Goods flow from here to a group
of warehouses (in the center), which are further linked by roads to the
nearby settlements. On the right, Gans and Jelacic diagram three
settlement scenarios. The top diagram shows what a block of typical U.N.
housing looks like when first built; the block is intended to
accommodate 1000 refugees. Over the course of ten years, inhabitants set
up markets and small gardens, causing the block to resemble the diagram
in the center. If a settlement were built out of the housing units Gans
and Jelacic have developed and are proposing, the housing block would
look like the bottom diagram. The pair believe that this alternative
arrangement anticipates some of the long-term changes that will occur
within the camp as it is used over time. |
|
|
|
Gans and Jelacic foresee many applications aside
from refugee housing for the units they have developed. For example,
sometimes civil unrest or natural disaster destroys just an isolated
part of a city, causing its residents to be temporarily displaced.
Eventually these refugees will return to reclaim the site of their homes
and attempt to re-establish their former lives on the devastated site.
In the image above, Gans and Jelacic illustrate various applications of
the scaffolding unit in a destroyed residential section of a city (1). A
displaced individual or family can construct the housing unit in the
periphery of the devastated site and temporarily settle on the outskirts
of while they reconstruct their previous home (2). They can place the
housing unit on top of the site of their ruined property and slowly
rebuild their home around it (3). Or they can arrange several units as
scaffolding to support the construction of a new home (4). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BACK TO TOP;MM_showHideLayers('navdepts','','hide')){kind=small}
;MM_showHideLayers('navfeats','','hide')){kind=small}
;MM_showHideLayers('navcolumns','','hide')){kind=small}
