Sustainable development to restart
Traditional materials and community participation for the reconstruction of housing in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
An approach to the massive reconstruction of the rural houses implies to consider more aspects than the simple choice of materials. There are social and cultural issues of great complexity and delicacy, economic issues, governmental, constructive traditions, regional livelihoods, etc. None of these issues should be ignored, since each one relates to others and allows us to know the problem from its real magnitude.
Under this perspective, and with the precariousness involved in working in a disaster zone, the Civil Association Community Cooperation develops a method to rebuild the homes lost by recent earthquakes in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
The architect Isadora Hastings leads this project and argues that before designing a design it is important to listen and learn from traditional knowledge.
By involving the community in the reconstruction, they also touch psychological fibers: The affected population is motivated to move forward and in this way the process is faster.
It also emphasizes the importance of recovering local architecture as it has been lost by several factors, including the belief that certain materials such as concrete block and concrete are better. On this, he says that it is not the material, but the constructive system that fails to earthquakes. Adobe, brick, tile, palm and other traditional materials are resistant if they are well placed as part of a system, and also have the advantage of adapting to both the climate and the uses and customs of the inhabitants of the region.
Sustainable reconstruction is then considered as an option to help affected communities, not only involving housing construction responding to the most urgent material need, but also projecting to the future to prevent Situations similar to that occurred. Developing manuals, training workshops, designing emergency plans for possible natural disasters, are important strategies to achieve this goal.
By laureate Martínez Figueroa