Architecture at Risk (?): The Ambivalent Nature of Post-disaster Practice

Abstract

Post-disaster reconstruction regularly materializes politically and institutionally dualistic in a spatial arena where the expediency of required re-building often threatens high standard architectural produc- tion and the appropriation of future preventive measures, and in a societal arena where the erosion of community, livelihoods and security potentially trigger social fragmentations. Complexities arise and expand in this profoundly risky process of suggestive transformative aims, as the concepts of housing and architecture compete within various conflicted oper- ational dimensions across diverse situational land- scapes. Drawing here from the ontology of Foucault and Lefebvre, a discursive context frames the current challenges and risks facing the production of post-disaster space. Neither meant as a demons- tration nor a mere guide to the relevance of their philosophical apparatus, the authors' central argu- ment suggests that an augmented perception of space would help link social and material needs while questioning the set of emblematic elements of architecture's technique and limits. The paper thus ambitiously seeks to offer a provocative lexicon and theoretical lens for addressing the potential of recon- struction as well as questioning the state and role of architecture, perhaps calling for a renewed sense of critically anthropocentric post-disaster practice.