Sustainable mobile architecture for natural disasters with reference to the experience of the Bam earthquake

Bajgiran, Fariborz (2018) Sustainable mobile architecture for natural disasters with reference to the experience of the Bam earthquake. Masters by Research thesis (MPhil), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

During the Bam Earthquake (Iran, 2003) and Sichuan Earthquake (China, 2008) the emergency services learnt how important is their speed in providing sustainable emergency shelters and first aid points for survivors. They understood that they must have different strategies for planning in different locations (Yayong, 2008; Zhai, 2008). All governments and NGOs, such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society respond to natural disasters by organizing emergency services for earthquakes, floods and storms. They provide well-organized systems and quick for immediate architectural needs such as field hospitals for temporary care and rehabilitation of the survivors in disaster areas where shelters are rapidly located and erected (Babister and Kelman, 2002; de Magaz et al., 2005). In emergency cases, temporary structures are vitally important to save human life. Also speed in making decisions and saving energy in such situations is very important (Hinde, 1974). Architectural development in the future should address the issues relating to this type of sustainable, environmental and natural degradation, but must also be economically responsive. Also the architectural development should meet special needs specifically identified by NGOs and disaster relief charities. The United Nations has provided a manifesto for unique disaster response cycles and a strategy for disaster reduction for emergency services, which consist of different stages such as sheltering, landscape recovery and urban recovery (Griekspoor and Collins, 2001). There is a process for sheltering in a Disaster Response Cycle (Babister and Kelman, 2002) that needs to be updated because of the increasing the world’s population (Bolin, 1994) and the increasing number of natural disasters through time (Chart 1.1). In response to this situation the research discussed here looking at sustainable emergency shelters (Comerio, 1997 and US-Census, 2004; Ban, 2006) in the form of the application of deployable structures (Pellegrino, 2001 and Guest, 2000; Gantes and Konitopoulou, 2004), and at key designers such as Buckminster Fuller (Gorman, 2005). Examples from around the world such as those developed at the DSL workshop in the Cambridge School of Architecture and Lincoln Lab in the MIT Department of Engineering are explored; these structures are then categorized by shape and erection mechanism so that they may be examined by type. In addition, their suitability in different situations or locations and their advantages and disadvantages are examined. The contribution of this research to knowledge is the innovative application of deployable architectural technologies to long-term disaster relief. An important part of the process is to develop a deployable architecture, providing self-construction emergency shelters based on low-tech traditional skills such as origami (Slatin, 2003) and familiar materials such as cardboard, paper and plastics products in a post-earthquake scenario and how the structural mechanism such as erection and folding can be predicted for different conditions. Furthermore, the sustainability of existing equipment for emergency sheltering, advantages and disadvantages are evaluated. In terms of sustainability in emergency sheltering, the following areas are explored in separate chapters to identify the efficient options: material (Maeda and Suzuki, 2011; Ritter, 2007) method (Fellows and Liu, 2009; Jodidio, 2011), deployment (De Temmerman, 2007) and energy (Mansfield, 2000; Marsh, 2003).