Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Responsibilities within the team

Celine: GIS, Treasure, Contacts
Stephanie: Pictures, Weblog up to date, Literature up to date
Michiel: Space Syntax, Security, Supplies & Materials

Research Focal Point |DRAFT|

The last couple of weeks we've gained a huge amount of information through lectures, workshops, readings and research on related topics and more specifically on the disaster response in Banda Aceh. Based on these explorations we've generated some draft hypotheses and sub questions, these express our preliminary goals and fascinations.

We assume certain opportunities are created in an urban structure by (natural) disaster. Shelter response as it exists today, might not be utilizing these new prospects to their fullest. We choose to take a different approach in developing post disaster shelter, by starting to reason from the demand side, as opposed to reasoning from a supply perspective.


Hypothesis 1
The recovery process of Banda Aceh after the Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami has been accelerated by the survival of specific built structures.
Sub questions:
- Which specific built structures (electricity networks, water systems, dwellings, public buildings, bridges, infrastructure, etc.) have survived?
- What were the functions of these remaining built structures within the networks (social, economical, environmental and spatial) both before and after the Tsunami?

Hypothesis 2
The 2004 Tsunami has generated room for, and acceleration in the development of the functioning of certain urban systems in Banda Aceh.
Sub questions:
- Which voids in the urban fabric have been created by the 2004 Tsunami ?
- Which of these voids have enabled the evolution of urban systems?
- What
urban systems have evolved in the voids left by the 2004 Tsunami?

Wednesday, February 04, 2009