The Institutionalization of the EA activities into the UAP

By: Ar. Maria Cynthia Y. Funk, MAdvArch, UAP

According to the World Bank, the Philippines is one of the most natural hazard-prone countries in the world. The damage caused by natural disasters in the country is increasing socioeconomically and exacerbated by a lot of factors such as population growth, a change in land-use patterns, migration, unplanned urbanization, environmental degradation and global climate change. In order to achieve the development goals in the Philippines, there is a need to lessen risk caused by disasters.

Following the deadly Typhoon Haiyan whose devastation can be chalked up to a series of bad coincidences in 2012, the Emergency Architects was organized in 2013. It is a network of competent architectural professionals and affiliate architectural aspirants that provide appropriate technical support and assistance to communities in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters. With an average of 20 typhoons during the year, not to mention other disasters such as fire, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, to name a few, the Emergency Architects’ job has proven to be most valuable in establishing the role of architects in society, making its rounds among disasters which take place around the country through which research has been made and papers have been written.

Towards the end of 2021, Typhoon Rai struck, locally known as Odette, and it made its first landfall bringing torrential rains, violent winds, floods and storm surges to the Visayas and Mindanao Islands. In an overnight, the typhoon left thousands of families homeless, placing at risk some of the impressive social and economic gains made since recovering from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic of the past two years.

UAP Areas C & D (which constitute Visayas and Mindanao) were hardest hit. As such, the UAP responded immediately through the shipping of water filters to various parts of Visayas and Mindanao, but the devastation pushed the UAP to go further, beyond fund drives and relief packs. Architects needed to step up and live up to their relevance in society and the importance of their role in disaster management.

By institutionalizing its activities, the UAP has responded to the devastation caused by this recent typhoon, and the role of the Emergency Architects, also referred to as EA, has been priceless in re-tooling architects by establishing capacity building activities as a convention or norm in the organization.

The three directions established by the EA in its three clusters are community engagement, shelter modeling and information, education and documentation. A culture is therefore created and cascaded to UAP architects in capacity building seminars. Concretely, the idea was initially a dry-run among those who had volunteered after the EA made the call, and a series of webinars were held to organize the volunteers better. Disaster Risk-reduction and management is a new concept not taught in architecture undergraduate schools but is a postgraduate course offered in the more progressive schools so this is primarily the footstool for a strengthening of the architectural profession at this time. It is so timely that the “vulnerability” perspective in disasters, which is rapidly emerging as a dominant view in the field, assumes that a real disaster occurs when it strikes an underprivileged population. Vulnerability is formally defined as “the characteristics of a person or group and their situation that influences their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from the impact of a natural hazard.” (PRB, Washington DC, USA, 2011) Filipino architects have so much to give in this sense especially among the poor population. So the Emergency Architects should not be limited to a special committee but the whole organization aiding society.

The initial projects within this program, following the call for volunteers, are the “One Chapter, One EA Coordinator” and the “Chapter Match-Up Program”. There is more to be shared as these projects are developed, responding to our needs

MARIA CYNTHIA Y. FUNK, MAdvArch, UAP Executive Director, Commission on Education