Typhoon Haiyan: 1 Year On: 205,000 Families still without Homes

Families are still staying in a tent city that was set up for survivors of the typhoon in Tacloban, which was largely destroyed in November last year. Some 6,300 people died across central Philippines as Super Typhoon Haiyan whipped up the strongest winds ever recorded on land and generated tsunami-like storm surges more than two-storeys high. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE 

By Raul Dancel Philippines Correspondent In Manila

Super Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest typhoon to make landfall in recorded history, left a trail of destruction and some 6,300 deaths across central Philippines. President Benigno Aquino has come under fire for having very little to show since Haiyan devastated communities in 171 cities and towns. By his government's own estimate, 205,128 families are still living in bunkhouses, tents and shanties in "unsafe areas". However, only 1,252 houses have been built for them. In Tacloban city, a provincial capital that Haiyan nearly wiped off the map, around 400 families have refused to leave a "no-build zone" that stretches 40m from the coasts wrapping the city. Also, only 50 families have so far been relocated to permanent shelters out of more than 14,500 still hunkered down in evacuation centres in the city. Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez said he is hoping construction of a new "township" for these families can be finished by 2017, but he conceded that problems over expropriating private land and scarcity of manpower and construction materials could delay the project by 10 years.

In a briefing paper, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Rehabilitation and Recovery defended the pace of reconstruction in the Philippines, saying it has, in fact, been faster than in Banda Aceh in Indonesia, after it was hit by a tsunami in 2004.It said it took two years before Banda Aceh could transition from relief to reconstruction. Most of the rebuilding so far is being done by international aid groups and private foundations, including the Singapore Red Cross, which has raised $12.26 million to fund 87 programmes for some 1.5 million people. Today, Tacloban will mark a year since Haiyan struck with a "candlelight memorial".Thousands are expected to light 24,000 candles along a 24km stretch from the city airport to a memorial park where more than 2,000 of those who died in the city last year were buried.

The powerful Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has declared today a "national day of prayer", instructing all Catholic churches in the archipelago to simultaneously ring their bells at 6pm. A "climate change envoy", meanwhile, will end his one- month, 1,000km march from Manila in Tacloban. Mr Naderev Sano, the Philippine representative to the United Nations' climate change negotiations, and 12 others have been travelling an average of 25km a day since leaving Manila. He made world headlines last year when he fasted during the annual summit in Poland to protest against the lack of meaningful progress on global warming.

Akitek Tenggara's legacy

676 experimental two-storey houses, each with a small garden of 13 square metres, were completed in 1976 by Akitek Tenggara's preeminent Tay Kheng Soon and Chung Meng Ker. It was the result of a critical morphological study into alternatives to high-rise and walk-up apartments at densities of up to plot ratio of 2:1. What Cheras showed is that a plot ratio of 0.68:1 is possible at a cost significantly lower than for medium and high-rise solutions. High-density low-rise can even be attractive given its ground-hugging typology. To date, after nearly 20 years and with minimum maintenance, the project still looks reasonably well-maintained. With its tree-lined roads and paths, and little sign of vandalism, it has matured. It also shows that 144 ground-based dwellings, each with a private garden, can be accommodated for each hectare of land.

http://www.akitektenggara.com/projects/cheras/cheras.htm

Paper Housing - Shigeru Ban

Master Architect ! Emergency Shelters and Housing TED TALK

 Source: http://www.architectural-review.com/Pictures/web/v/s/t/Shigeru_Ban_Col_0_390.jpg

Student Housing!

Source: Cattani Architects, Cité A Docks - Le Havre, France - Shiiping Container Student Housing

Open Modular System of Sustainable Houses (SAVMS) / Cso Arquitectura

SAMVS open modular houses make a great solution for low income housing programs given their fast construction time, simple materials, modularity and overall efficiency. Comprised of modules that serve specific functions and are fabricated in a local factory, the home can be built in just one and half months for 700 Euros per square meter.

Industrial in design, the home nevertheless boasts sensible materials that ensure sufficient thermal massing and ventilation. The interior is light and fresh and the green roof helps with insulation and enhanced air quality. Rainwater is harvested and recycled and the entire home is powered by both solar thermal plates and photovoltaic panels. It’s hard to go wrong with the SAMVS units: they save materials, energy, time and money, and they’re not so hard on the eye either.

source: http://www.archdaily.com/295004/open-modular-system-of-sustainable-houses-savms-cso-arquitectura/

Public Housing Design 101

Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior through environmental design. CPTED strategies rely upon the ability to influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts. As of 2012, most implementations of CPTED occur solely within the built environment. By changing the areas we reside in to deter criminals from committing acts in our communities is the main goal of CPTED. Urban design and the planning that goes in to the creation of new and reformation of older communities, citizens in these neighborhoods and places of business can feel safer at all hours.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_prevention_through_environmental_design

The rise of social housing movement in Taiwan: dec 06

Unlike the developmental model in Singapore, public housing in Taiwan has been neglected overtime by the government in periods of rapid economic growth.  Most public housing units were built for and sold to the public servants and the people in the military sector instead of socially and economically disadvantageous people. Nowadays, public rental housing for disadvantaged people only occupies 0.09% of the total housing stock.  Therefore it could hardly play the role as social safety net when the Taiwan society experiences economic fluctuations.  At the same time, the skyrocketing price of housing has made purchasing a housing unit an unreachable dream for young people.  In addition, discrimination in the housing market also leads to the difficulties in housing searches for disadvantaged people such as elderly singletons, the disabled, and poor people.

 To address this situation, two years ago a movement urging the government to provide public rental housing emerged.  It could be viewed as a reincarnation of the housing movement in Taiwan from late 1980s to early 1990s.  However, this time the appeal of the movement has changed from government intervention in leveraging housing prices in the private market to more public housing or social housing for rental based on people’s housing rights.  This talk introduces the history of the two periods of housing movements in Taiwan, and gives an overview of the achievements as well as unachieved agenda of the recent movement for social housing in Taiwan.

For more information contact: fasrda@nus.edu.sg

Venue: FASS, NUS, at the AS7 Shaw Foundation Building, level 6, in room 06-42, the Research Division Seminar Room.