Shelter to Gather: A Primitive Future for Resilient Cities in Post-earthquake Urban Environments

Abstract

This thesis focuses on creating a strategic process for addressing the devastation of communities in the aftermath of earthquakes. In Christchurch, New Zealand the site of this thesis, buildings and infrastructure were destroyed, leaving people without homes, protection, or a sense of safety that are typically anchors of our communities. It investigates conditions of soil liquefaction and construction methods to create a layered strategy that incorporates material selection and the social/cultural needs to enable places of shelter and gathering through community empowerment, education and the knowledge of how, what, and where we rebuild.

By examining the definition of resilience, the thesis forms a set of constructional and spatial systems that facilitate program adaptations and structural redundancy. This rebuilding process is urban and potentially regional in scale, where local instances for architecture in the form of an educational center, relief/workers housing and fabrication workshops are created to help with initial rebuilding of affected areas and displaced persons.