Architects as enablers of community resilience recognized in Conscious Cities Anthology 2021

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014) defines resilience as the “capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation.” On the other hand, community resilience is “a measure of the sustained ability of a community to utilize available resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations” (RAND, n.d). Empowerment plays a crucial role in enabling communities to tap into their latent abilities to address underlying conditions that shape their vulnerability as individuals and collectively as communities (TumamaoGuittap And Furigay, 2021). When working with vulnerable communities, architects need to deliberately depart from common top-to-bottom practices. Rather than treating them as passive recipients of interventions, enabling these community members to occupy space in the proverbial table by recognizing them as experts of their cultural contexts, local practices, and social dynamics; and capacitating them as partners in designing, planning, and decision-making improves their longterm capacity to cope with, bounce back, and recover from disasters.

Drawing on our experience working with various stakeholders for the Moving Urban Poor Towards Resilience (MOVEUP) Project Alternative temporary shelter (ATS) Component, technical inputs from building professionals are effectively combined with local knowledge and capacities in the community and enabled by policy and investment support from local government units (LGUs), National Government Agencies (NGAs), and non-government organizations (NGOs). Partner communities are involved in varying capacities from the identification of their needs, as well as during the design, fabrication, and integration of the ATS solutions into community-based contingency plans. Tapping into the unique and collective perspectives of the endusers through participatory community risk assessments and emergency shelter needs analysis, the multi-stakeholder team found that the issue of providing dignified living spaces in evacuation centers is not just about numbers, it is also an opportunity to relinquish back to the communities the power and control over the resources they need to ensure their survival.

By involving urban poor community members in planning, developing, and constructing their emergency shelter services, they gain awareness and take ownership of their local DRRM plans. Towards inclusivity, simple construction methods requiring very little skills were preferred so that women, the elderly, and even differently-abled persons can lend a hand. The ATS Menu of Options deliberately opted for common materials that can be found or bought in local hardware shops to ensure that local businesses benefit from shelter mobilization projects. Since access to materials can be challenging during disasters, the technical team also suggested that these be acquired and pre-positioned through a communitybased cooperative/enterprise ahead of time through (a) outright purchase, (b) rental, or (c) retainer arrangement with suppliers, or (d) a combination of any of the suggested modalities.

1 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014): Summary for policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L. White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-32. available at: https://www.ipcc. ch/report/ar5/wg2/ accessed 24 March 2022

2Rand Corporation (N.D.)Webpage COmmunity Resilience available at: https://www.rand.org/topics/communityresilience.html accesed 24 March 2022

3 Tumamao-Guitap G.S. and Furigay J.N. (2021), Opinion Piece/ Designing Shelter Programs Empower Communities,PP 159 -161, available at : www.shelterprojects. org accessed 22 March 2022

A menu of ATS designs that consider varying timeframes of occupancy, availability, and configuration of space, as well as deployment conditions, were developed to fit a wide variety of contexts. (Source: UAP EA and ACCORD, Inc.)

Mockup setup for Temporary Covered Court Partitions (TCCP) used to secure stakeholder buy-in and training. (Source: ACCORD, Inc.)

A menu of ATS designs that consider varying timeframes of occupancy, availability, and configuration of space, as well as deployment conditions, were developed to fit a wide variety of contexts. (Source: UAP EA and ACCORD, Inc.)