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International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijdrr

Designing culturally responsive built environments in post


disaster contexts: Tsunami affected fishing settlements in
Tamilnadu, India
Ram Sateesh Pasupuleti n
Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Division of Architecture and Water, Lulea University of Technology,
971 87 Lulea, Sweden

a r t i c l e in f o abstract

Article history: The focus of creating built environments without recognizing what is appropriate to a
Received 6 August 2012 particular settlement is a common and frequent failure in many post disaster development
Received in revised form projects. This paper has been developed to address the issues related to culture-space
22 March 2013
dynamics in post tsunami recovery process. Basing on the primary evidences from two fishing
Accepted 25 March 2013
villages in Tamilnadu, Southern India, this paper develops key directions for designing
Available online 10 April 2013
culturally responsive and resilient settlements in post disaster contexts in specific to Tamil
Keywords: fishing settlements. This study concludes by highlighting the importance of connectivity as a
Culture construct of cultural continuity that links approaches for designing built environments with a
Architecture
socio-spatial understanding of traditional settlements in post disaster reconstruction process.
Tsunami
Such suggestions can eventually inform the theory and practice about the methodological
Tamilnadu.
ways to develop further guidance for designers in the long run.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Background importance of owner driven process which had shown


many positive and sustainable outcomes from the Gujarat
Over a decade, built environment professionals work- experiences. On this regard it is worthwhile to question
ing on disaster and development issues have noted con- the relevance of owner driven approach with the fishing
cerns on the cultural issues in post disaster recovery communities in Tamilnadu context. Firstly, it is not obvious
processes [2,3,6,11,12,20,24]. In humanitarian shelter prac- from the point of development agencies in Tamilnadu that
tice, development organizations have developed different they have not thought about the relevance of the owner
participatory approaches involving communities in order driven approaches in the recovery process. For instance,
to address cultural concerns in the post disaster develop- South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies (hereby
ment processes [1,2,10]. Barenstein and Iyengar [3] has mentioned as SIFFS) have conducted extensive habitat
reviewed the paradigm shift from vulnerable self-built mapping exercises with local communities in the villages
housing to safe contractor-driven housing practices by of Tharangambadi1 and Chinnangudi in Tamilnadu [16].
assessing the development impacts from the cases of The outcomes of such habitat mapping exercises have also
Marathwada rehabilitation in 1993, Gujarat rebuilding indicated SIFFS, that fishing communities have not shown
experiences in 2001 and the 2004 Tsunami reconstruction much interest to participate in construction activities
in Tamilnadu. Following upon a comparative review, as they have felt that their skills are more relevant to
they have advocated that tsunami recovery process in fishing activities than building activities. In the case of
Tamilnadu has not adequately considered the value and Gujarat, many of rural communities from Kachch region

n 1
Presently on extra ordinary leave: School of Planning and Architec- Tharangambadi, formerly known as Tranquebar and Chinnangudi
ture, Bhopal, India. Tel.: +46 92049 2149. are the fishing villages in Nagapattinam District, Tamilnadu, Southern
E-mail addresses: ram.pasupuleti@ltu.se, ramsateesh@rediffmail.com India. They were largely affected by the 2004 tsunami.

2212-4209/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2013.03.008
R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839 29

are craftsmen and laborers. Hence, it was easily acceptable establish a schematic framework, Leach [17] develops a
for them to get involved in construction training programs tentative theory of identification with space by bringing
and the reconstruction process which in turn has shown a three discreet theoretical models. They include narrati-
scope for enabling their livelihoods. In Tamilnadu case, vism, through which spaces are demarked by narratives;
most of the people are fishermen and fishing economy is performatives refers to the spatial practices, through
considered as primary base and therefore, people might which spaces are demarcated by certain groups by a kind
not have had shown particular interest in construction of social appropriation; and mirroring where sense of
activities. That is the reason many of the rebuilding identification with place can be developed and reinforced
programs in Tamilnadu have been constructed by external through repetitive performatives in other words habitual
contractors. Nevertheless, it is significant to note that in practices. From such theoretical aspects it can be under-
some recovery practices such as Tharangambadi, commu- stood that architecture offers a potential mechanism for
nities were engaged in choosing the design alternatives inscribing the self into the environment and how the
and decision process (in terms of allocation) and also narrative and performative discourses tend to give mean-
actively participated in the supervision of rebuilding ings to the spaces in the everyday life. These take place in
process. specific spatial and architectural layouts. However, such
Unlike the pre disaster situation from the Gujarat rural meanings are also subjected to change with the day-to-day
cases, various social housing programs have already been needs and modernistic visions and demands of the people
implemented by the government initiatives in some fish- in the disaster and development processes. Such transfor-
ing villages of Tamilnadu, prior to the 2004 tsunami. Such mation is reflected in the evolution of traditional dwellings
pre disaster housing initiatives in Tamilnadu may also bear and settlements in the disaster and development context.
influence in the transformation of fishing settlements. The The key role which choice (either tradition or modern)
image of many such fishing settlements is not to be seen plays has complex and contradicting implications for the
just as a vernacular setting where people have built their identity and construction process [7]. In a post disaster
own houses with local resources and skills, but it has to be context, this transformation does not only depend upon
imagined with the recently brought (pre disaster) con- development initiatives but to a large degree on the
tractor driven practices of building houses reflecting the cultural setting of the affected settlements, which in turn
aspirations of urban forms and character. For instance, in has an influence on the development initiatives [11,23,24].
Tharangambadi village, Meenavar (fishermen) colony has
been developed by uniform and standard housing models 2.1. Personalization is a natural response to cultural
prior to the tsunami disaster and villagers to some extent deficiencies in built environment:
were familiar with the impacts of such contractor driven
uniform and standardized housing practices. Despite of Pasupuletis [24] study is an effort to bring a new
having familiarity and living experiences with the pre- insight by arguing that cultural dimensions of the affected
viously contractor driven housing practices, communities communities are not effectively and sufficiently addressed
still have chosen to the similar approaches. This indicates in the current post disaster humanitarian and develop-
that there is not only communication gap between the ment processes. The analysis of his extensive primary
development professionals and beneficiaries, but also research that was conducted in the 2004 tsunami affected
knowledge gap on understanding the contexts of vulner- fishing villages in Tamilnadu India, has unfolded the
ability, culture, and development of fishing communities. specific vulnerable impacts on the traditional built envir-
onments and the reasons for such impacts and responses
2. Architecture and culture in post disaster contexts in the post tsunami reconstruction process. Following such
various impacts on the cultural environments of the
The discussion on vulnerability and development affected communities there has been a shift in the villagers
recognizes that whether in pre-disaster or post disaster habitual practices, which are performed in specific places
contexts, it follows that vulnerability gets transformed and the tsunami reconstruction process has shifted the
(either reduced or increased) with the nature of develop- location, practice, as certain activities are no longer possi-
ment performance and design inputs. Once a place has ble in the relocation context and hence has had an impact
been chosen or provided for the beneficiaries, the produc- on those rituals and daily practices. As a result, people
tion of an individual space begins [19]. Family, kinship and started extending their homes, and making encroach-
gender is a basic dimension in which an individual starts ments in the public spaces and in some instances com-
his journey to become a social individual in a geographic munities have initiated double house concept of living in
space. In the built environment context, Dovey [9] notes new houses and simultaneously using old locations for
that habitus as the aspect of human behavior that causes surviving their livelihood activities [23,24]. It is not for the
culture to happen and he considers [9, p. 285] that it is first time that such extensions and encroachments in
embodied in people as well as their physical environments the built environment have eventually taken place. Such
and subjected to constant change, but such revisions are instances are evident in different post disaster response
always based on social practices in time. Neil Leach [17, situations. It has been noticed from many scholarly works,
p. 298] tries to point out Dovey's [9] understanding on that reconstruction in Tamilnadu has led to demolition or
changing habitus and states that it did not address any deterioration of massive undamaged houses [3,24] and the
commonly accepted framework for exploring how people similar situations has been identified from Jigyasus [11]
make sense of space and relate to it. Therefore, in order to study from Marathwada region. Jigyasu [11] and Ripin
30 R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839

Kalra [15] have also identified that such modifications for


adaptation have taken place in response to the rebuilding
efforts made during Latur earthquake (in 1993), Orissa
super cyclone (in 1999) and Uttar Kashi earthquake (in
1991). However, from such studies, it is fascinating to see
how villagers on their own have initiated changes and
additions to personalize physical fabric such as the addi-
tion of rooms, outdoor kitchens, upper floors, compound
walls and access points that was tailor-made for them and
were built using available local materials, skills and labor
[11,2224].
One of the core reasons for such responses is that the
architects and other built environment professionals those
involved in the humanitarian shelter development pro-
jects have not sufficiently analyzed and addressed the
cultural dimensions of the beneficiaries and their way of
life in the design of new layouts. The resulting phenom- Fig. 2. People using abandoned houses. Source: Pasupuleti [24]
enon is what we see today in the response situation with
different ways of extensions and encroachments in new
locations and reusing the abandoned places for surviving
their daily needs and cultural practices (see Figs. 1 and 2). contemplate upon so to develop a new practice that
Previous disaster experiences and also the recent 2004 acknowledges a transformative role of space and design.
tsunami context have demonstrated that personalization is They [6, p. 10] have also pointed out that many studies on
a natural response to cultural deficiencies in the recon- post disaster housing experiences from Gujarat, Srilanka
struction process; this has allowed a scope for haphazard and Aceh reveals a certain degree of challenge to the
developments not only in the newly relocated areas, but conventional paradigm of delivery and have rendered
also in the previous locations that were abandoned in the evident a gap in what could be referred to as a level of
present context. Therefore, any linking context that con- mistrust or miscommunication between professions, social
nects the transforming nature of traditional built environ- networks and the ability for action in general. From a built
ments with that of vulnerability can be seen as key to the environment perspective, and more specifically from the
development of a given settlement within a post disaster architectural practices in post disaster reconstruction pro-
context. Similarly, the key component that influences jects, Boano and Hunter [6] comments that many post
both development and vulnerability is the changing disaster visions for shelter are not imagined nor invented
cultural dimensions of the traditional settlements. Hence, as creative transformative spaces, a development that
this whole process of cultural adaptation and resistance would not only tie into the goals of participation but also
towards the built environments in post disaster recon- the potential of design as an agents of change. In Indian
struction process, is often referred as a social, cultural and geographical context, cases such as the Latur earthquake
emotive construct, which helps us to unite the physical rehabilitation in 1993, Gujarat earthquake reconstruction
components with social, cultural and emotive ones [6]. in 2002, and Orissa super cyclone recovery in 1999 and the
Boano and Hunter [6, p. 6] highlights that post disaster most recent tsunami reconstruction in Tamilnadu can be
housing is in need of a theory not only a system of ideas used to substantiate such arguments [3,11,15] in terms of
intended to produce reflections but rather to speculate and both positive and negative encounters. Michal Lyons et al.
[20] also opine that lack of user participation at all stages
of redevelopment projects or programs may result in
inappropriate building designs and settlement layouts
and residents do not feel real ownership in such processes.
In similar contexts, on community participation methods,
Cassidy Jhonson et al. [13] states that there is obviously no
single best approach for user participation, since recon-
struction in particular is rooted from their socio-politico-
economic contexts. In the recent years, humanitarian
experts concerning the traditional built environments
and the corresponding design disciplines have voiced that
there is an emerging need for a radical rethinking of how
architecture can help in promoting culturally responsive
environments in post disaster recovery process [6]. By
considering such arguments and earlier discussion in
Section 1 on Barenstein and Iyengars [3] perceptions on
owner driven housing processes and participatory
Fig. 1. Shop constructed in front of a newly built house in Kovalam. approaches, this study is an attempt to rethink beyond
Source: Pasupuleti [24] the relevance of participatory approaches for designing
R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839 31

architectural layouts and building designs in developing produced and reproduced by them. Within an ethno-
culturally responsive environments. graphic paradigm, Whitehead [25] also opines that ethno-
On the other hand, Cassidy Jhonson [14, p. 22] empha- graphic inquiry should go beyond local communities and it
sizes the need for developing building codes referring to should address the issues related to the changing political
the priority action 4 of the Hyogo Framework for Action economy. Such socio-cultural and development contexts
which has been specified under Land use planning and bring multiple systems of meanings not only to the lives of
building codes stating: communities but also to the environments they live. As
this study is to investigate the relevance of such socio-
Encourage the revision of existing or the development cultural behaviors in the evolution and transformation of
of new building codes, standards, rehabilitation and their physical environments, hence apart from methods that
reconstruction practices at the national or local levels, are adopted from ethnographic studies, there is a need to
as appropriate, with the aim of making them more develop interdisciplinary methodologies which can help in
applicable in the local context, particularly in informal articulating the socially diverse spatial environments.
and marginal human settlements, and reinforce the It has been agreed by various scholarly experts that
capacity to implement, monitor and enforce such urban design, is a discipline which is both concerned with
codes, through a fostering disaster-resistant structures. the physical attributes of built form and with the processes
that produce that form [21]. Within the interdisciplinary
Such efforts for developing building codes are mainly
and collaborative nature of urban design there is an
focused on developing disaster resistant structures addres-
explicit aim to combine knowledge not only from many
sing the local context. However, there is little or no such
associated design professions but also more recently other
theoretical and practical guidance for the designers work-
non-design professions such as sociology, anthropology
ing in post disaster recovery processes that could help
and other related disciplines [18]. Considering the study
them to design culturally responsive and resilient built
context involving culture, design and vulnerability, it is
spaces, addressing the psychological implications for indi-
important to get a thorough understanding of meanings
vidual and collective identity, memory and history. Such
(existing, transforming ones, and those old meanings
concerns about the transformative role of space, culture
which might have disappeared) particularly religions,
and design of the disaster-affected settlements have led
family and social ones, for the communities concerned
the focus of this inquiry for informing the better ways for
and it is challenging to understand how such transforma-
designing culturally responsive built environments in post
tion of meanings are associated in the place making
disaster contexts.
process. Therefore, urban design qualities or principles
The central aim of this paper lies in two parallel phases
can be used to tease out the spatial elements in the
of discussion that goes hand in hand to provide guidance
analysis and assessment of built form in order to provide
for designing culturally responsive environments in post
a kind of benchmark as to whether the aims of creating
disaster contexts. Drawing from authors previous field-
sustainable places have been achieved or not. This frame-
work in the tsunami affected villages in Tamilnadu, South-
work is addressed in two dimensions. The first dimension
ern India, firstly, this paper explains on how the current
of the assessment looks on how the settlement form,
design practices in post tsunami recovery processes in
street layouts, arrangement of plots, and building designs
Tamilnadu have overlooked the transformative nature
have given scope for satisfying the changing needs of the
of vulnerability-culture-space, a triad phenomenon in
communities in the pre and post disaster development
the long run. Thus building on the primary evidences
processes. This is assessed using the relevant qualitative
that have addressed the issues related to socio-spatial
design principles based on the Bentley et al. [4] theory of
dynamics in post tsunami recovery process, this paper
responsive environments. Design principles include: Per-
develops key directions for designing culturally responsive
meability, Legibility, Visual Richness, Robustness, variety
and resilient settlements in post disaster contexts in
and choice and Personalization. However, due to the
specific to Tamilnadu fishing settlements. Such suggestions
complexity of socio-spatial relations and communities
can inform the theory and practice about the methodolo-
basic needs that cannot be taken for granted in the post
gical ways to develop further guidance for designers in
disaster development process, it is necessary to address
the long run. Therefore, in order to conduct inquiry on
both philosophical positions through the urban design
the cultural dimensions of the disaster affected settle-
analysis and social investigation. Therefore, the second
ments in a built environment context, an interdisciplinary
dimension of the assessment has adopted methods from
approach is developed as a part of authors previous work
cultural anthropology and this had then provided support
(see [23,24]) shifting towards a new design paradigm to
to the mixture of different research methods. Here the
understand the role of culture in post disaster develop-
constructs of culture, which were defined by Lim [18] has
ment processes.
been used to understand the socio-spatial relationship.
These include Geographic landscape and natural environ-
3. Brief about the interdisciplinary framework and the ment, Family and Kinship and Gender, Religion and Belief
research process systems, Economy, Social and Cultural interaction, Political
and institutional systems that influence the evolution of
Ethnographic inquiries from past literatures have traditional settlements.
looked in such socio-cultural contexts in which people However, the synthesis of these two philosophical fields
live their lives, as well as the meaning systems which are of inquiry has helped to derive a variety of appropriate
32 R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839

methods to conduct the fieldwork in the affected settle- and Sisu Nagar (noted as B)) were built on safe locations
ments. The methods include: direct and indirect observa- following the coastal regulations. These regulations were
tion, semi-structured interviews with community groups rarely followed in the pre tsunami context, but the new
and development professionals, photographic and video clusters were built one km or even more (half an hours
recording and mental maps. The above discussed concep- walking distance), away from the sea shore and the
tual framework has been applied to analyze variety of data old village center. Such an expansion has complicated
collected during the fieldwork. Fieldwork was conducted the access for local communities to sustain their daily
in two fishing settlements that include Kovalam village in livelihood necessities. The only way to access the family
Kanyakumari district and Tharangambadi in Nagapattinam members in old village or other clusters and to participate
district of Tamilnadu. in village activities is through the state highway that
The analysis and findings from the fieldwork will be passes along the village. Prior to the tsunami, everything
described as evidences from the day to day living practices and everyone was considerably near and dear. Previously
in fishing settlements and how design elements along the resources required for peoples cultural lives and
with their composition typologies for housing develop- livelihoods were rarely spread in geographical space. In
ment projects, have not sufficiently addressed the cultural the pre tsunami context, people have developed close
dimensions of beneficiaries. By considering the aim of the interactions with each other and become habituated to
paper, the following section has been structured with that geographic space over a period of time and they lived
further subsections, which each of them reflect a parti- on it making their access to the resources for living. It not
cular component for designing cultural responsive envir- only offered a structure in functional terms but also
onments in post disaster contexts. Then each aspect is created a structure of meaning to their lives. Now in this
discussed with the significance of the design principles, relocation context, the expanded and fragmented geogra-
supported with the evidence from the primary fieldwork, phical spaces possess a new character that has interrupted
and this whole discussion of the facts and context leads to their access to resources in many ways. As marked in
more general suggestions for designing culturally respon- Fig. 3, clusters D, C, and E due to their proximity to the old
sive environments. settlement and harbor, they have a better connectivity
with their socio-cultural and economic resources.
4. Evidence based ideas for designing culturally Similarly from Tharangambadi case, it is evident that
responsive settlements in post disaster contexts SIFFS have tried to relocate the fishing community as a
whole to a safe location rather than different clusters.
This main objective of this section is to discuss the Mental maps and semi-structured interviews have been
findings from the fieldwork from both Kovalam and taken with the local residents not only from the fishing
Thrangambadi cases, by following a spatial hierarchy. clusters, but also with other communities living in colonial
Firstly, it starts with the location, and then it critically and pre-colonial clusters (which were not damaged in the
articulates following from a broader focus i.e. the design of tsunami). Interestingly, such analysis from different meth-
housing cluster layouts, Public spaces, and landmarks and ods has indicated that social links and relationships are
to the building designs and its interior spaces. getting weakened after the relocation. Mental map analy-
sis has shown that change of pedestrian movement from
4.1. Location of the redevelopment areas Queens Street to the periphery of the village. Queens
Street as highlighted in Fig. 4 is one of the important
It is commonly observed that in many post disaster street that connects internally all the clusters in the village.
housing programs, starts with the discussion about the In the relocation context people hardly tend to access this
location issues. Very often due to land availability and internal street as children approaching to schools located
acquisition issues, many rebuilding projects have either in colonial areas is from peripheral main road (Kings Way).
separated the beneficiary communities into multiple Such change in pedestrian access also has direct and
neighborhood clusters in different directions. The same indirect impacts on the social relations within the neigh-
situation has taken place in Kovalam and Tharangambadi borhood communities of the village.
villages in Tamilnadu. It has been evident from Pasupuletis Secondly, the resulting distance from new housing
[24] study that this kind of relocation process depending on clusters to the sea does not allow fishermen to go fishing
the land availability has brought many impact situations in more than once per day; where previously they may have
the cultural lifestyles of the affected communities. Because, gone twice depending on the available catch. Such varia-
the fact about the land issues is obvious in recovery tion in the frequency of fishing trips has resulted in a
programs and however, as designers we need to see how lesser fish catch, which has had a direct impact on the
design elements and their composition be able to reduce fishing households income and the overall fishing econ-
the gap and further enhances the agglomeration of old and omy. Under such conditions, in Tharangambadi, people
new built characters and their communities. have started using motorbikes for attaining easy access to
For instance in Kovalam village (see Fig. 3) during the the sea shore and in Kovalam, church is planning to build a
post tsunami recovery process, relocation has physically canteen at the shore to serve food for the fishermen.
expanded a congested village through the addition of new From the above discussed evidences, it can be noticed
housing clusters following the Coastal Regulation Zone that changes in pedestrian access has created impacts in
(CRZ) notification. In that process, some of the relocated the social relationships, whereas in the case of Kovalam, it
clusters (D.C.Nagar phases 1 and 2 (noted as A in Fig. 3), is recognized that newly constructed housing clusters are
R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839 33

Fig. 3. Physical expansion of Kovalam layout after tsunami. Source: Edited from Pasupuleti [24]

Fig. 4. Mental map of Tharangambadi. Source: Edited from Pasupuleti [24]

located in a fragmented manner and all the clusters are not connect not only homes, but also their communities.
internally connected with a simple pedestrian access. Hence, it is recommended for the humanitarian shelter
However, such situations in humanitarian shelter practice practitioners to avoid fragmented communities as much as
inform that provision of a small pedestrian road connect- possible, and further to see the possibilities for creating a
ing different clusters of settlement would be able to pedestrian access that help in connecting various clusters.
34 R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839

Thus by creating such pedestrian ways through different


clusters can enhance social bonding in communities. In
relation to the access to livelihood, we notice that com-
munities tend to develop alternative mechanisms for
sustaining their livelihood. For such adaptive mechanisms,
choosing of location and its connecting street network
should be able to offer choice and feasibility to develop
their strategies for sustaining livelihood and other cultural
living conditions.

4.2. Designing the cluster layouts and allocation process

During the relocation process, in Kovalam village, at


first the Government has constructed 88 houses (as per
damage records) at their own expense on government
land, and allocated the dwelling units to the beneficiaries
using a lottery system. By running a lottery approach, none
of the beneficiaries knew which house they were going
to occupy, until the allotment chits were distributed.
Throughout this process, they were not given an opportu-
nity to express their individual household needs.
If we compare these newly built clusters with that of
those traditional built patterns of neighborhood clusters,
one can easily notice how the modern architectural lay-
outs in the relocation process has overlooked the sense of Fig. 6. Layout of new cluster in Kovalam; Source: (Google earth
image, 2009).
privacy and intimacy in terms of their communal spaces
(pre tsunami) formed with the orientation of fronts and
backs of dwelling units (Fig. 5). In the pre tsunami context
the street hierarchy following from primary streets to
secondary streets and then to the narrow access ways
have brought a sense of privacy and sense of belonging
amongst the residents.
In the new clusters (as shown in Fig. 6) these linear and
cul-de-sac street networks have not offered the residents
especially the gender responsive spaces and the absence of
public spaces has offered less interaction amongst the
neighbors. The only way people are currently interacting
with their neighbors is through the road in front of their
house and some cases, with their immediate adjacent
neighbors from the backyard. For instance, in one of
the cluster (Cluster B) the houses were designed with

Fig. 7. Street view with open verandas. Source: Edited from Pasupuleti
[24]

open verandahs and in another typology the semi-open


verandahs are provided and in some cases, verandah
component was not provided, and therefore, we can notice
from the Figs. 7 and 8 that despite of provision of
verandah, the ways inhabitants have used the spaces had
indicated the shift of the household activities such as
cleaning, washing from backyard of the dwelling to the
street fronts. This shift indicates that existing cluster
design and layouts have not efficiently addressed the
importance of fronts and backs of houses in fishing
communities that eventually have developed the street
character. More interesting shift has been observed with
Fig. 5. Illustration showing traditional cluster in Kovalam. Source: Edited the wives of fishermen as they are now unable to give
from Pasupuleti [24] support in carrying out domestic fishing activities such as
R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839 35

Fig. 8. Street view with semi-open verandas. Source: Edited from


Pasupuleti [24]

cutting and drying fish along with their regular household


activities in the house and at the same time having an eye
over the children playing in the neighborhood. This is due
to the composition patterns of housing layouts and build-
ing designs which eventually do not allow them to per-
form such activities in the relocation context.
From the work of CEPT [8] in Tharangambadi, considers
the composition of built spaces in relation to the street.
Fronts and backs of these plots and buildings are defined Fig. 9. View of a typical traditional door in Kovalam. Source: Pasupuleti
by the use of those spaces for sustaining the cultural needs [24]
of fishing communities. Different typologies of street
composition include:

1. Streets with semi-open verandas as house fronts. but also the meanings and practices associated to the
2. Streets with closed verandas as house fronts. cultural beliefs and living practices.
3. Streets with front setbacks. Apart from the design of the streets and their elements
for public and private interaction, this study has noticed
that allocation process also has its stake in the evolution of
Streets in traditional fishing clusters are often seen such uniform characters. For instance, family relationships
composed either with open verandas as house fronts or and livelihood opportunities after the impact of tsunami
with streets with front setbacks. The veranda is the most has not been addressed in the rebuilding process. For
important spatial element that acts as an interface instance, a woman running a small shop in the relocated
between the semi-public or semi-private areas and the area of Tharangambadi, states that after the death of her
more private dwelling areas. This is a semi-open space husband in the tsunami incident, she has opened a small
either covered with tiles or thatch in order to provide shop in front of her house as part of survival strategy
more shade for the residents to organize their fishing (Fig. 10). In the present context of relocation the absence of
activities while socializing with neighbors and visitors. The family members in the neighborhood cluster made a
kitchen and toilets are usually detached in traditional significant impact in her daily life. It is now becoming
houses. The doors in the traditional settlement in Kovalam more difficult for her to run a shop and manage children
follow a particular style which is commonly observed in without her husband or other family members support.
the adjacent state of Kerala. The doors are usually com- Even though family members from other locations often
posed of two or four leafed doors. When a visitor comes to visit her house to look over her welfare, still she is
the house, women from inside the house open the top part managing to run her household with great emotional
of the door and talk to strangers or visitors to maintain difficulty. The distance from her family members creates
their privacy (Fig. 9). Therefore, such indigenous composi- difficulties in her everyday life.
tions of buildings have helped the fishing communities to In another case in Tharangambadi, it is significant to
construct their identities and accommodate their cultural note that families who were allocated in adjacent plots
needs in the long term. have modified their houses by making extensions both
In both the cases of reconstruction, it is observed that vertically and horizontally in a mutually shared process for
uniform and standardized dwelling units have framed a accommodating their extended family interests and repre-
standard character to the fishing streets. The character has sent their belonging as one single household even in the
shifted not only with regard to change in the built forms present situation (Fig. 11).
36 R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839

Fig. 10. Woman running a shop in front of her house. Source: Pasupuleti
[24]

Fig. 12. Toilet converted as worship place. Source: Pasupuleti [24]

bell tower to create a sense of landmark in the newly built


cluster and thus giving meanings to their places. The main
challenge now in the post disaster context is designing for
a cultural continuity after the reconstruction. Because, the
Fig. 11. Two single dwellings modified as one single large dwelling. cultural and symbolic images had created deep roots in the
Source: Pasupuleti [24] minds of the local people, so there is need to make this
cultural continuity rather than to end up with some
From the above discussed cases, it is evident that the modernized solutions creating incompatible solutions
designers in Tharangambadi case were aware of the in a period of time. Cultural continuity is addressing a
importance of the neighborhood concept and made efforts dynamic perspective and often refers to continuation of
to keep neighboring families together in the same street. knowledge not only in relation to building of a cultural
In such process of allocation, households have their old sensitive and responsible civil society, but also to people
neighbors facing them and a different set of neighbors and place (Bjnness and Thakur [5] cited in Jigyasu [11]).
residing at the back of their house. However, in cases such Public places composed with landmark elements reflecting
as shopkeepers case it is questionable on the underlying the cultural and symbolic images along with the modern
communication gaps during the allocation process. images will further enhance the image of cultural con-
tinuity in the local communities.
4.3. Landmarks and public spaces
4.4. Building designs
In Tharangambadi, small habitable public open spaces
were left in the new layout to provide social interaction At the level of dwelling unit, during the reconstruction
within the households in that cluster or street. In time process in Tharangambadi, vasthu, which is a traditional
continuum process, such spaces were rarely used for hindu system of design, based on directional alignments,
public interaction as there are no landmarks that define was not sufficiently addressed in the design of new houses.
the image of public space. In Kovalam, it is identified that There are cases identified to substantiate this argument,
the designers have not provided enough thought on the with the observation that newly built toilet spaces are
provision of public spaces in the newly built areas. Despite currently being used as worship places (puja rooms) to
of such public areas communities and the church have meet vasthu guidelines (Fig. 12). In Kovalam, it has been
taken up initiatives in placing Christmas tree at street noticed that the architects have designed such a way that
corners, and they have also recently constructed a church they have to carry food from kitchen to main living room
R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839 37

with other members of the family in a balanced manner.


The present livelihood income of nuclear families are
adequate enough to sustain their individual family needs,
but not sufficient enough to share and support their
extended families living in a different location. This has
indirectly led to a larger impact on the family ties and their
relationships. The cost of living per household has
increased, as each family has to maintain their daily
commodities such as electricity, gas bills and taxes, from
the individual sources of income.
In response to such building practices, people have
expanded their dwelling units using local resources and
materials following the individual household require-
ments such as outdoor kitchens, rooms above and com-
pound walls. In some clusters in Kovalam, it is noticed that
people have built compound walls to their dwelling units,
whereas people from cluster D (from Fig. 3), have
expressed their willingness to have a common compound
wall for their cluster of houses to represent all their houses
Fig. 13. Plan of a typical new house in Kovalam. Source: Edited from as one single entity.
Pasupuleti [24] All such diverse needs and aspirations of the local
communities, poses a great challenge for the built environ-
ment professionals working in the shelter programs in post
through the semi-covered balcony, which is against their disaster reconstruction processes. Thus in order to conclude
cultural norms (refer Fig. 13). the discussion the following section lists out briefly on the
SIFFS has conducted various participatory studies with guidance for the design professionals working in humani-
local people in order to analyze their needs and aspira- tarian shelter practice on how to design culturally respon-
tions. They have worked on a concept of developing 2000 sive built environments in post disaster contexts.
plans for 2000 houses. Each household was allocated 3
cents (1cent is equal to 0.01 acre) of land for the recon-
struction. Initially 7 types of houses were constructed as
5. Conclusion and recommendations
model homes for the beneficiaries and they were con-
sulted again in face to face meetings during the allocation
This study recognizes that there is strong influence of
and for further modifications. Most of the housing has
the cultural dimensions such as family kinship relations
been laid out in a gridiron pattern. Choice was given to the
gender, livelihoods, social, political interactions in the
communities to supervise their plots and dwelling con-
evolution of cluster layouts, street fronts and dwelling
struction at each and every stage of reconstruction. How-
units in the pre tsunami context. However, such rich
ever, as discussed earlier in Section 4.2, the layout of the
cultural dimensions of the affected communities have
houses and their orientation of fronts and backs have not
not been adequately addressed in the newly designed
adequately addressed the cultural needs and aspirations of
settlements. This paper concludes on the key inferences
the communities. As previously noted, by various scholarly
for design that have been drawn from the above discussion
experts in the field, this study also has noted that uniform
which will further help the designers in future reconstruc-
designs for building units may not suit the individual
tion projects.
household needs [2,20,23,24]. It is very much required to
learn more on how specific requirements of the families
vary and sometimes how such aspirations do compliment
or contradict with others perceptions. In Kovalam case, 5.1. Location; physical and visual permeability within and
400 households in pre tsunami context have become 1000 across the housing clusters
households after the reconstruction. This has taken place
with a vision of the church to expand the village in a As discussed earlier in Section 4.1, this study recognizes
spacious manner. As a result, many joint families have that many of the relocation projects have difficulty in
broken up into nuclear families. Nuclear households that getting a single location for relocating the whole settle-
have been separated from their parent families in the ment. However, in such conditions that practitioners and
post tsunami reconstruction process were presently sup- development agencies have to give a thought on possible
ported by the individual sources of income for their daily options on how such fragmented clusters can get con-
household survival. Previously, for sustaining household nected internally in future. It is important to provide a
necessities in a combined family household, they were physical and visible connection (which is often referred to
sustained through mutual sharing of the overall income permeability in design [4]) between the old and new
from the family members. Even if one person had lower clusters. Such a pedestrian connectivity would open up
income, the other persons who earned higher income had choices for interaction with the communities living in old
supported the family of the lower earning member along clusters and the recently relocated households.
38 R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839

5.2. Addressing the change in family and gender relations in landmarks that are associated with their past. In this study
post disaster contexts mental map exercises with local communities is one of the
useful methods to capture such legible images from minds
Family size and how family relations have been changed of people. Therefore, this study recommends the built
following the aftermath of the disaster should be taken into environment professionals working on shelter development
account while designing and allocation of dwelling units to projects in post disaster contexts to implement various
beneficiaries. In our earlier discussion we have noticed from kinds of mental maps methods for understanding the
different cases, how families suffer without their family legible images and meanings from the minds of commu-
members in the nearby location and at the same time it is nities. Such methods can reveal the underlying or hidden
also important to note how households those got their sense of meanings from the local communities, in which
dwellings adjacent to each other have eventually rebuilt case verbal interaction methods might not have helped
two houses as one single house. Such consideration of appropriately to understand.
family relationships will eventually determine the mutual In this study the methods of urban design appraisal
support arrangements and thus assure the family ties help to tease out the spatial elements of these practices
and affections in the post disaster reconstruction process. (e.g. mental maps, identification of the way in which space
This not only requires a through consideration of participa- is demarcated, segregated or appropriated). Such spatial
tory feedback information from beneficiaries, but mainly it elements were determined by these habitual practices of
is significant to see how such family information could be the communities explicitly reflect Leachs [17] ideas as
further mapped to determine the feasibilities to allocate the discussed in Section 2. Leachs [17] concepts are very
families in the settlements layouts and their dwellings in a useful in this research. People have defined the places
spatial context. Hence, Inquiry into family typology is one with certain activities such as the patterns of walking,
principal way to relate social and cultural forms to physical women carrying domestic activities for both livelihood
form in traditional settlements. and regular household purposes on street fronts and
verandahs, and constructing place in symbolic terms,
5.3. Addressing the livelihoods and the gender responsive which was analyzed in the fishing villages. Such appro-
spaces priation and demarcation of spaces can be referred to
Narrativism in Leachs theory. Christmas and other impor-
Proximity to Livelihood activities is one important tant religious rituals which are performed in specific
phenomenon that plays a role in the lives of beneficiaries places of interest, the tsunami reconstruction process has
those got relocated in the post disaster context. In the shifted in location, and practice and hence have had an
Tamil fishing lives context, it is noticed that certain impact on those rituals. Finally performance and mirror-
activities for sustaining livelihood is no more possible inghabitual repetition of performances has been dis-
with the new relocation context. The location and the cussed in relation to fishing and gender relations. The
uniform and standardized design forms of settlement whole study flags up the importance of connectivity as
layouts and buildings does not allow women to participate a construct of culture that links approaches for designing
in the livelihood activities as in previous situation they built environments with a socio-spatial understanding
were involved in domestic activities such as cutting and of traditional settlements in post disaster reconstruction
drying fish and preparing fish pickles. Hence, such domes- process.
tic activities should be taken into account while designing On the pedagogical level, the study demonstrates
the housing clusters and their gender usable spaces. For that the design profession and the services it offers
instance, some common spaces within the clusters or particularly in the field of architecture and urban
street would have enhanced the sense of cultural con- design can clearly extend to traditional settlements
tinuity where women can perform their fishing supported and other beneficiaries that fall outside of the normally
activities and such spaces would have offered better defined client domain. To do this requires the designer
flexibility in simultaneously carrying out their individual or architect and all others involved in the process to
household responsibilities. have the ability to recognize appropriate development
projects which can benefit from design solutions
5.4. Legible images in the public spaces, and landmarks will whether it is a project engaged in reconstruction of a
help in reinforcing sense of cultural continuity fishing settlement and its relevant infrastructure, and
other projects of relevance to the traditional settle-
As discussed in Section 4.3, this study opines that ment. This can only be done in close collaboration with
leaving empty spaces in between housing clusters had members of the traditional settlement and with a
often may not serve the purpose of public spaces that are means for understanding local culture and the multiple
meant for social interaction. It would have been better if identities involved in defining what development is
landmarks were built in appropriate public spaces reflect- and what culture was and how they are now. The study
ing the traditional architectural elements composed from emphasizes the values of both engaging and understanding
history and memories from the pas, which in a way would local knowledge among built environment professionals,
have further helped to address some sense of attachment development practitioners, reaffirming the relevance of the
with the old place. The efforts made by the church in relation between culture and space in the culture-
Kovalam to build a church bell tower in new locations also vulnerability-design-development equation in post disaster
tend to give new definitions to the new places with contexts.
R.S. Pasupuleti / International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 6 (2013) 2839 39

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