A Small-Work. Design of a temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

“[...] the days where design was about chairs are long over. Design is about people.�

Talia Radford

A•SMALL WORK

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

ABSTRACT This research discusses the emergency living arrangements that can be used in exceptional and unpredictable circumstances as a result of natural calamities such as earthquakes, fires or floods or social phenomena like, for example, the current huge immigration wave that saw a large number of asylum seekers fleeing the war zones.

The study starts from an observation on the photographic works of Luigi Ghirri, Giovanni Chiaramonte and Adrian Paci and especially focuses on their interaction with the abovementioned emergency situations. They give, in fact, a full report about the situation, describing what’s behind a wrecked building and a family’s tough time, deprived of dignity, privacy and belongings.

Then, the thesis deals with the temporary housings as a prompt response to the issue of homelessness during emergencies. The building of temporary housings, in fact, helps evacuated people and refugees without home to return, in the meantime, to a normal life.

The next part consists of the study of some precedents and issues that rise in the design of this kind of accommodation, for example, the fact that, even if the minimum living criteria are satisfied, the temporary housing is often still on the edge of habitability, without heating, potable water or too far from the city centre and its services.

The thesis aims to individualise a dwelling able to provide adequate living conditions, even temporary, for those who are going through the emergency. Firstly, a list of general

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A•SMALL WORK criteria is drawn up, they are fundamental for designing a dwelling that can fits different environmental contexts, in order to face different aspects of the construction, the matter of sustainability and of cultural adequacy; secondly, it’s proposed a contextualised project which seeks to help the understanding of how the unit works and its requirements. This hypothetical model takes the city of Porto (Portugal) as its framework, taking advantage of its large number of vacant territories and urban gaps in order to avoid a further consumption of soil and the problem of the links with the city.

This project aims to offer, besides a common guideline, also an example of response in the face of potential emergencies in the city of Porto and elsewhere, since it is designed to be adaptable to other realities, with cultural and territorial differences.

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

ABSTRACT Il presente lavoro di tesi tratta delle soluzioni abitative d’emergenza che si possono utilizzare in casi eccezionali ed imprevedibili conseguenti a catastrofi naturali come terremoti, incendi o inondazioni o a fenomeni sociali come, per citare un esempio concreto, l’enorme ondata migratoria degli ultimi tempi che ha visto migliaia e migliaia di richiedenti asilo fuggire dalle zone di guerra e povertà.

Questo studio parte dalla considerazione dei lavori fotografici di Luigi Ghirri, Giovanni Chiaramonte e Adrian Paci e soprattutto della loro interazione con le situazioni d’emergenza sopracitate. Essi danno, infatti, un rapporto completo sullo stato di fatto, descrivendo cosa si cela dietro un edificio distrutto e una famiglia provata dalla tragedia, privata della dignità, della privacy e degli averi.

Successivamente la tesi si focalizza sugli alloggi temporanei come risposta immediata al problema della mancanza di una abitazione nelle situazioni d’emergenza. La costruzione di alloggi temporanei, infatti, aiuta gli sfollati a tornare, nel frattempo, alla vita normale.

Viene dunque affrontato lo studio di alcuni precedenti e delle problematiche che si riscontrano nella progettazione di tali alloggi, come ad esempio il fatto che, seppur vengano soddisfatti i criteri abitativi minimi, l’alloggio temporaneo rimane comunque al limite dell’abitabilità, non disponendo di riscaldamento, acqua potabile o essendo troppo distante dalla città e dai suoi servizi.

La tesi si propone di individuare un’unità abitativa capace

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A•SMALL WORK di offrire un’adeguata qualità della vita, anche temporanea, a coloro che stanno vivendo l’emergenza. In primo luogo viene redatta una lista di criteri universali, fondamentali per la progettazione di una dimora in grado di rispondere alle variazioni del contesto ambientale, al fine di affrontare diverse tipologie costruttive, la questione della sostenibilità e dell’adeguatezza culturale; in secondo luogo, si propone un progetto contestualizzato che ha lo scopo di aiutare la comprensione del funzionamento dell’unità e delle sue esigenze. Tale modello ipotetico trova contesto nella città di Porto (Portogallo), sfruttando il suo gran numero di aree dismesse e gli innumerevoli vuoti urbani qui presenti, al fine di evitare un ulteriore consumo di suolo e la questione dei collegamenti con la città.

Questo progetto vuole proporre, oltre che una linea guida comune, anche un esempio di risposta di fronte a eventuali situazioni d’emergenza nella città di Porto e non solo, essendo pensato appositamente per potersi adattare anche ad altre realtà, con contesti culturali e territoriali differenti.

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

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INDEX INTRODUCTION

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01 EMERGENCY. GHIRRI, CHIARAMONTE, PACI AND THEIR SIGHT BEHIND A CAMERA

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02

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TEMPORARY HOUSING AFTER DISASTERS 2.1 Design strategies, problems and possible solutions 2.2 Analysis of precedents 2.2.1 The Turkish (1999) and Japanese (1995) post-earthquake dwellings 2.2.2 The Hexagonal Shelter 2.2.3 The Octagon 2.2.4 The Pop-Up House 2.2.5 The Wikkel House

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2.2.6 Further precedents

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25 29 29 34 37 40 43

03 A SMALL-WORK. THE PROJECT [Worldwide] 3.1 The design process 3.1.1 Concept 3.1.2 Modularity 3.1.3 Versatility 3.1.4 Sustainability 3.1.5 Montage

53 54 54 56

3.2 The final unit

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57 58 59

04 A SMALL-WORK. THE PROJECT [Porto] 4.1 The city of Porto 4.1.1 Urban gaps and dismissed building 4.1.2 Rehabilitation Areas 4.1.3 Re-use of already existing links 4.1.4 Soil consumption 4.2 Selected areas for the project 4.3 Space and organisation CONCLUSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY ATTACHMENTS

63 65 66 68 69 70 71 80 103 121 127

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

INTRUDUCTION In the last decade, the number of disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and floods, or the exodus of people fleeing the war zone, increased. This caused a large number of homeless people and unusable buildings, making more relevant the need to have a quick answer to such a problem. The construction of temporary housing allows people to return in the meanwhile to their normal lives, but the criteria used to design them are sometimes unsustainable and culturally inadequate, proposing hard living conditions.

The following study is divided in four sections and its aim to show how to design the unit and how it could work in an imaginary post-disaster reality, speaking at first referring to a large scale and then moving to a practical example.

In the face of tragedies, it is important to give a full report about the situation: the role of photographers and professionals is essential to show what’s behind a wrecked building and a family’s tough time.

Taking pictures of the disease, the desperation and the privation of a home that previously represented a safe place where to come back at any time, is a hard role because it’s easy to fall in an emotionally detached representation.

Therefore, the figures of important photographers such as Luigi Ghirri, Giovanni Chiaramonte and Adrian Paci, are interesting in their professional interaction with that new and strange place cut off from the rest of the world.

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A•SMALL WORK What is a temporary housing after disaster, with its examples, problems and solutions is the second part of the study and it focuses on precedents that give us the idea of the must a unit should follow referring to requirements, furniture and social needs.

Based on these researches, the third part comprehends the explanation of the unit in its design, keeping the worldwide aspect: modularity, versatility, sustainability, and montage are described firstly in a universal way and then are more concretely defined in the particular context of the city of Porto, Portugal.

The choice of taking Porto as an imaginary scenario of a tragic situation is given by some reflections upon the city itself (like the presence of urban gaps, the use of these areas to avoid the consumption of soil and so the redevelopment of some of them). Moreover, the study of the cultural aspects is extremely important in the design of a temporary housing.

Finally, with the fourth part is possible to face the problems and give immediate answers to satisfy both the urban issues and cultural adequacy, identity and social dignity.

This approach gives an example on how might be the answers in front of post-disasters problems, in particular in a reality like the Portuguese one. Although, the methodology in this research could be transferred to other realities, in fact, the units has the purpose to be adaptable to other cultural and territorial contexts, making this study really interesting and useful in the face of other possible future situations.

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

01 EMERGENCY. GHIRRI, CHIARAMONTE, PACI AND THEIR SIGHT BEHIND A CAMERA

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

The landscape, according to the definition of Lucio Gambi¹, is “the set of visible realities that occupy a spatial dimension around us”.

At the moment when a disaster disturbs or destroys this balanced environment (where we used to live our life), a gap cuts the reality and its sight; the genius loci loses its usual thresholds, leading to the need of other landmarks.

Just a photographer is able to set in an image these new benchmarks using his own field of vision: every single frame is, in fact, a doorstep to other “infinite worlds”.

Luigi Ghirri is an important Italian photographer who shows through the frame of his picture what people usually do not see in reality and, thanks to his work, we can understand the limits he oversteps in his photography.

There is often a theme which occurs in every single project: how to “look” at our world.

During an interview, he explained that at the end of every visit, we bring with us a load of “already lived” and “already seen” things. However, the process we are lead to do is to rediscover a sight that deletes and forgets the habit. It does not mean to see with different eyes but just to see in order to orient again in space and time.

In front of calamities such as earthquakes, flood hazards, fires or the emergency of refugees, only a photographer could organise and coordinate the project like a filmmaker so to be able to show all the details and thresholds that are visible just behind the different eye of the camera.

Behind the habit there are always other elements we forget to see and, in this way, what we think is common and usual begin to be more relevant.

It is important to have such witnesses of reality because, in

¹Lucio Gambi in Cultura popolare dell’Emilia-Romagna. La casa dei contadini. Milan, 1977: “L’insieme delle realtà visibili che rivestono una dimensione spaziale intorno a noi.”

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A•SMALL WORK front of a disaster, they are able to describe the event in all its shades and aspects, showing the evidence and gravity of what happened.

The main purpose of Luigi Ghirri, according to Gianni Celati’s interpretation, is to extract a phenomenon from its own evidence and bring it back to the sight under another light. In this way, the platonic concept of knowledge and truth is dropped down to the dimensions of colour and light shadows, which are peculiarities of photography.

“Photography is image of light generated in the dark, a finished image in which the infinity reflects itself, picture of the visible in which the visible is revealed”: this is what Chiaramonte explains during an interview (by Giuseppe Matarazzo for the online journal Avvenire.it), his approach is first of all theoretical and then artistic and photographic, his choice is thought and reasoned.

Giovanni Chiaramonte is another relevant Italian

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

photographer who travelled a lot around the world. His collaboration with Luigi Ghirri and the foundation of the small publishing company Punto a capo influenced his way of making photographs generating a view of reality that goes forward and behind the actual moment of the shot.

“The camera is an eye that can see at the same time forward and behind itself. Forward it shots a picture, behind it traces the soul of the photographer: he takes through this eye what inspires him. He sees in front of him the object and behind the reason why this element should be fixed, it shows things and their desire”: Chiaramonte quotes one of his favourite Cinematographic producer, Wim Wenders, explaining how his “infinity realism” works through his projects.

Like Ghirri, his aim is to rediscover the lost originality of things and, with him, started to research a new representation of the outside: in particular he became interested in the earthquake happened in Emilia in 2012 and he noticed that it was impossible shooting pictures of the inside of buildings completely destroyed by the cataclysm.

As a tragic metaphor of the contemporary civilisation, the collapse of buildings buried and made impracticable the inside, which is the dimension in which people can reach themselves and find their own truth.

He says that in his pictures he tries to catch the gold irradiating from the rubble of every single building and this is a light that he feels coming out from the devotion to the shape and the figure, a light that in the “lost inside spreads from the authentic found”.

That rubble talks about a visible hope that for Chiaramonte is the act of faith in becoming infinity. It is important

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A•SMALL WORK to say that Chiaramonte worked also with Alvaro Siza, a great Portuguese architect. They undertook together a long journey, where the former took pictures and the latter followed them with his drawing of the reality around us.

A medida do ocidente is the title of the book and it shows the strong friendship between them and their common point of view on architecture and photography.

Being able to fix reality in an image is not easy, especially if reality is something that breaks the parameters of social

balance and people’s routine.

The current crisis caused by natural catastrophes and disastrous wars, that forces people to move away from their houses and even from their own Country, has become a frequent matter of discussion.

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

For this reason, as Chiaramonte tries to print in a picture a crucial moment in order to be able to see before and after that instant, the expert Adrian Paci focuses a huge part of his work on the theme of abandon and loss of the homeland in order to face new realities and reach the desired future.

He has Albanian origins and what he shows trough his works is something he lived the hard way.

The topic of transition and total immobility returns in his project taken in the detention centre of San Jose, California (2007): in the airport of the city, he films some immigrants on the plain stairs waiting for being repatriated.

The stairs little by little become full of people, but the plain takes time to arrive and the protagonists are stuck in a state of transition and total immobility, a state that reflects the dislocation of immigrants and refugees around the world.

Vite in transito is the title of one of Paci’s projects and, according to him, it reflects the general attitude, the sensibility of his works, the research of something that happens in different contexts without a defined benchmark.

The fact of being in motion identifies the transit itself. Paci is interested in the open identity that is often linked to life (interview for the website Artflash.net, by Alessandra Galletta, 2013).

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

02 TEMPORARY HOUSING AFTER DISASTERS

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

The high number of homeless people all over the world, caused by several reasons such as environment disasters, wars and so on, leads various professionals to create a dwelling able to satisfy the urgent need of a home.

Usually, “home” is a term used to describe a permanent place where people can live, where conditions for family life, comfort, protection and privacy are provided.

A home should be that space where people share their life and feel safe, creating a community that works in order to improve the cooperation of the neighbourhood and the being part of a city.

However, a temporary housing is intended more as something vague, something that someday will be demolished and never used again: it is not a coincidence, in fact, that the term “temporary” indicates a provisional and transitional element that will be dismissed at the end of its use.

For this “temporary” aspect of the house, the project of the unit, with its structure and its internal spaces, is drew in order to satisfy the minimal criteria for living. Sometimes the risk is to go under the limits and obtain dwellings where it’s impossible to live for many reason such as the lack of heating or potable water, or the too long distance from the city centre and its services.

Quarantelli² makes a distinction between sheltering and housing because there are at least four steps to go from the first to the second one: emergency shelter (friends’ house, public shelter), temporary shelter (public mass shelter for no more than few weeks), temporary housing (stage that allows returning to normal activities and normality), permanent housing (the return to the rebuilt house or to a

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A•SMALL WORK new one permanently).

During this chapter, it will be possible to understand how this temporary housing works with its spaces and organisation, problems and eventual solutions, thanks to the observation of some built examples and designed ones.

² Quarantelli: Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1959. From 1963 to 1984 he worked as professor of sociology at the Ohio State University, where he founded the Disaster Research Center Disaster Research Center (DRC). In 1985 he took the DRC to the University of Delaware, where he worked until 1998.

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

2.1

DESIGN STRATEGIES, PROBLEMS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

When we say temporary housing, it is usual to think about a necessary accommodation that allows families to regain the tranquillity to organize again their own future, thing that is quite impossible with an immediate simple shelter.

According to Quaratelli (1995), while the term “shelter” (emergency and temporary) refers to a place to stay in for no more than few weeks after the disaster, suspending daily activities and so on, “housing”, on the other hand, let people enter again their routine and household responsibilities.

Short life cycle, low cost materials, fast assembling on site, essential minimum spaces etc., are the attributes that a unit must have from the constructive point of view. Anyway, the sudden and urgent need of a new place where to live most of the time causes a careless drawing of a unit that lacks of other important properties: being recyclable, constructively strong and safe, acoustically and thermally protected, not polluting and, finally, able to provide conditions for family life, comfort, protection and privacy.

With the increasing number of natural calamities, such as earthquakes, floods and fires, or other emergencies caused, for example, by the current huge immigration wave, the topic of temporary housing has become matter of common concern among various architects and professionals who

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A•SMALL WORK want to prove themselves creating something different and actually able to solve this problem.

The design of a temporary unit can be developed following two kind of approaches: top-down, that encourages the mass production and the solutions that are cheap and technologically quick to put in place; however, this way shows numerous negative aspects such as the negligence towards culture and local conditions and user’s needs (El-Masri3 & Kellet 4, 2002); by contrast, there is the bottom-up approach that takes in consideration the crucial role of the citizens in the decision-making process, obtaining more success in terms of developing appropriate technologies that respond to the culture and economic environment, and in terms of maximising the potential of investments, (Aysan and Oliver, 1987; Cuny, 1983; Davis, 1981, UNDRO, 1982).

5 According to Cassidy Johnson , temporary housing are right now still suffering for this top-down approach that causes issues, like costs and sustainability, because of the immediate need of a fast delivery.

A temporary housing is usually a prefabricated and mass produced construction, designed to be ready-made or transported as kit supplies. The first one needs just to be moved to the site and set and this requires a heavy transport system, which imply an increment of the costs. In the second case, the unit is composed by small elements and sometimes it could be assembled by people, creating a sense of participation and sharing; moreover, the unit doesn’t need heavy way of transport because it is light and easy to build.

Within the kind of construction and assembling of the 3

Souheil El-Masri: assistant professor at the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at the University of Bahrain. He has delivered papers at many international conferences and published several articles especially in the area of disaster and human settlements.

4 Peter Kellet: qualified architect with a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology and a PhD which combines both disciplines, in Newcastle University.

5 Cassidy Johnson: senior Lecturer at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL, UK.

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

unit, the consequences of the choices made come out: sustainability (speaking about costs and environmental issue) and the cultural inadequacy are the main problems faced during the organisation of the emergency camps.

Most of the time, the unit solution is not placed in the same area where the disaster happened. The fact of having the camps at the edge of the city or far away from the centre and the daily routine produces, first of all, a cost in the transport sector; secondly, the camp will need infrastructures (such as streets, potable water, electricity etc.). For this reason, the will to invest money in something that is not going to last forever is not that strong, causing lack or carelessness in the design of important elements able to ease the post-disaster lives and mood.

On the other side, it has been verified that at the end of the life cycle of a unit, the pollution and the losses associated to the dismantling of the camp is really high. This problem confirms that frequently the design of the unit is not drown up to have a second life and so to be able to reduce the waste of material, the pollution and the disgracing of the area.

Hand in hand the standardisation and the technology oriented solutions, as well as the production of pollution and problems to the environment, lead to the total ignorance of the user’s real needs: the climatic and cultural variations, like the changes made by the user to the unit with no skills, provoke vulnerability to future disasters.

Some solutions have been individualised by the experts: there are in fact three points to follow during the design of the unit that allows overcoming the temporary

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A•SMALL WORK housing gaps.

The participation, the usage of local resources and the development of solutions to reuse the unit represent the concept of “second life”. According to the article Temporary housing after disasters, a state of the art survey, written by D. Fèlix, J. M. Branco and A.O. Feio, the second life of the unit should be obtained thinking about it as a long-term used unit, its dismantling and selling of the total unit or part of it and, moreover, the possibility to demolish the unit or reuse it.

Re-design, re-use, re-cycle are the key-words: the unit can be used by low-income families, or for some other functions, with the addiction to enlarge, or for youth camp, holidays camp, etc.

Finally, the guideline underlined in this article is composed by five steps the design should follow: the context understanding, the community participation, the local resources usage, the planning ahead, and the design beyond the unit.

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

2.2

ANALYSIS OF PRECEDENTS

2.2.1 The Turkish (1999) and Japanese (1995) post-earthquake dwellings TURKEY (earthquake 1999) _ Government and NGOs temporary housing According to the paper of Cassidy Johnson, written in 2007 (data collection in 2004), four temporary housing projects were chosen to be subject of a study about the impact of post-disaster trailers, two of them built by the government (Kiremit Ocağı and Gümüşpınar) and other two by NGOs (Fidanlik and UMCOR).

The four projects are all examples of a top-down approach.

Since the citizens were not involved in the constructive process, however, people were allowed to customise their own house and, when the settlement was far away from the centre, services were installed to help people to reorganise and restart their daily occupations.

The two examples designed by the government were built on its vacant lands or, if outside the city centre, on concrete foundations and walls, using prefabricated pressed board panels or corrugated metal.

The settlement in Kiremit Ocağı has been continuously occupied since it was constructed and at the time of the

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A•SMALL WORK data collection all the units were still occupied; people were paying rent to the government, creating a new community leaded by the muhtar (the elected village head in villages of Turkey). It will be dismantled in the future, according to what C. Johnson wrote in Impacts of Prefabricated Temporary Housing After Disaster: 1999 Earthquakes in Turkey (2007).

In the one in Gümüşpınar, just the 20% of the units were inhabited just because the government forced the moving of most of the families two years after the set of the dwellings: the cheap/free accommodation is an appealing factor, despite the distance from the city and the barren quality of the surroundings. After the dismantling, however, the site remained in an abandoned state because of the concrete foundation and the underground infrastructures.

The other two examples built by the Non-Governmental Organisations, such as ASK (Afete Karsi Sivil Koordinasyon - Civil Coordination Again Disasters), and ACT (Churches Together Netherlands), were made with wood or prefabricated panels on metal or wood piles foundations.

The settlement in Fidanlik, close to the city, was completely dismantled in 2004, forcing some families who were camping out in the units to leave, being able to clear the place leaving behind the underground infrastructures.

The UMCOR arrangement, built in privately owned plots inside the city, is an example of the most affordable and sustainable unit: in fact, people were able to move out on their own and, after the dismantling (July 2004), some units were moved to be reused as schools, communities and medical clinics. Despite the high intent of giving a new life to the units, the cost of transportation and reinstallation

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

was relevant, around $ 5000 per each building.

It’s clear, then, that “to make the house comfortable enough to be acceptable as a temporary house often means supplying a structure that is durable well beyond the short time period that is needed as temporary housing” (C. Johnson, 2007).

In fact, even if equipped with basic services and infrastructures, people were grateful to have a place where to live and not to be forced to move to other towns.

From this briefly report of C. Johnson’s study, emerges that Non-Governmental Organisations put more efforts in understanding the needs of local people, thinking during the design about the reuse of the unit and the creation of income opportunities for the dwellers.

However, problems are at the top and at the bottom of the lifecycle of a temporary housing: starting often from a careless design of the unit, and obtaining a sterile object, meant just to be strictly used and not to accommodate the needs of people deprived of their house and so physical deprivation, dignity, identity and privacy (Baraket, 2003).

Context understanding, community participation, using local resources, planning ahead, and design beyond the units are the steps that must be followed in order to develop a successful solution of temporary housing, as exposed in Temporary housing after disaster. A state of the art of survey of Daniel Felix, Jorge M. Branco and Artur Feio.

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A•SMALL WORK JAPAN (earthquake 1995) _ Paper Log Shigeru Ban “Which is the difference between a permanent and a temporary building? […] As a building made in paper could be permanent as long as people love it, even a concrete building could be very temporary if it is made to make money” Shigeru Ban Conference about Paper Emergency Shelters Tokyo, May 2013

In 1995, an earthquake of 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and 7 on the JMA intensity scale caused widespread and severe damage all around the area of Kobe.

Shigeru Ban designed the Paper Log House, presenting a product that was meant to protect body and mind from dangerous circumstances, responding to the sudden emergency and providing a sense of comfort and security.

Inexpensive materials, simple construction methods, satisfactory insulation, and at the same time aesthetically pleasing, were the main attributes of the unit, but it is possible to say that the intent of the architect to create a temporary housing, defined following the concept of object, process and place 6 (Johnson, 2007), obtained a satisfying result.

In fact, Ban’s wish to consider all the environment and not only single issues allowed him to design a unit with a bottom-up approach: people weren’t in need just of a new place where to live temporally, but they were lacking of hope and order because of the devastation. The easy construction process involved people in creating a new place to feel safe and independent by using materials easily

6

Temporary housing can be defined as (a) an object, i.e. the physical structure people inhabit after a disaster; (b) a part of a process of post-disaster re-housing; (c) is a place that serves the function to shelter people during the period from the disaster until they find another permanent place to be resettled and live, (Johnson, 2007).

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

affordable on the territory. The coordination and the sense of community helped people to reach the tranquillity to recover from a shock such as an earthquake.

Technically speaking Paper Log is based on a non-skilled workers concept: the urgent need of the house and the lack of professional people lead to a design easy to perform also for those who don’t have a specialised knowledge in the field of architecture.

Sustainability and affordability are other attributes coming from three major parts of these low cost Paper Log Houses: first, the base of the structure is built out of sand filled beer cartons (resistant to flood, rain, snow, and very stable and long lasting); second, the walls of the house built out of the paper tubes the houses are famous for (100 per cent of recycled paper and extremely durable material because of the coating with a rainproof substance); the final part of the houses is the ceilings, which are made out of tent material, water-proofed in every way but susceptible to the blow of a strong wind (DesignBoom, 2010).

The outcome was so positive thanks to its visceral appeal, inviting atmosphere and sense of clustering and community, that have been created and designed other buildings made by cardboard tube, such as other emergency housing in India and Turkey and the Christchurch in New Zealand.

Moreover, the easy design allows making some changes and customising the house depending on the site, such as the Paper Log in India where the foundations were made from rubble of a fallen building and they made traditional mud floors, according to their culture.

7 As Don Norman said “Good Design Makes You Happy” .

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Donald Arthur “Don” Norman: director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego.

He is best known for his books on design, especially The Design of Everyday Things.

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A•SMALL WORK 2.2.2 The Hexagonal Shelter

Combinable Delivered Flat-packed Long-term house Low cost Prefabricated Scalable Structural stability

HEXAGONAL SHELTER_HEX HOUSE Architect Architects for Society Type of construction Prototype Location Minnesota, 2015

“There are natural and man-made catastrophic events affecting the living conditions of large population groups. With the prevalence of refugee displacement across the globe Architects For Society has embarked on designing building solutions that target these populations by providing housing designs that are both dignified and cost effective.”

Architect For Society (AFS), 2016, Minnesota

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Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

40 mq

3D

extendable 2x lasting

60%

2D

S AY

inhabitants

1D A

S AY

YS

unbuilt

Y

4D A

Emergency, Sustainable and Affordable, are the attributes that pushed the AFS (a NGO) to create a prototype of a temporary housing that goes beyond the idea of simple shelter. Refugees or people survived a natural disaster are still human and so need an accommodation that gives them the dignity they deserve.

As D. FĂŠlix, D. Monteiro, J. M. Branco, R. Bologna and A. Feio say in The role of temporary accommodation buildings for post-disasters housing reconstruction, “a house is one of the most important needs for people and essential for their well-being, providing conditions to live with protection, security, comfort, and privacy. Thus, losing a house represents more than a physical deprivation, it is losing dignity, identity and privacyâ€? (Barakat, 2003).

This project is a clear example of a design-for-people meant to ensure AIM what they lost in the immediate Dwelling for victims of post-disaster situation. catastophic events The main concept is a well-thought l cal standardisation of the elements, such as walls, floor and roof, in order to ensure efficiency in the fabrication and have an easy and fast packing and 80% recycle transportation.

Thanks to an hexagonal steel frame, with six perimeter supports and a central one where adjustable piles construction in height are anchored to concrete time foundations, we obtain a more stable structure than a normal cube.

Furthermore, the wall panels (SIPs)

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A•SMALL WORK affixed to the frame and the roof ones are joined and locked together by tongue and groove joints, creating a sturdy structural shelter, anyway able to be customised in internal finishes (ceramic tile bamboo, gypsum wall), external covering materials (stucco, wood) and furniture.

The unit of 40 sqm has been designed with two rooms, a kitchen, a living-room and a bathroom, and includes a rain water harvesting system, an underground water storage tanks, and a solar panels for small electronics devices (in fact the roof is slightly inclined and improve the receiving of solar power). The shape of the house lead to a multiple combination with other units, creating a circular or regular clustering that allows having public spaces, pedestrian areas, ways for trucks and cars, and also green spaces. With a little train, everyone could build this house in few days, even lacking of architectural knowledge, giving people the possibility to feel involved in the process and reducing that stress and trauma post-disaster.

Since the aim of this design looks directly at people’s needs, it could be representative of that bottom-up approach that could be explained with the famous sentence of the designer Viktor Papanek: “the only important thing about design, is how it relates to people”.

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2.2.3 The Octagon

Combinable Prefabricated Scalable Structural stability Variation in clusterin

OCTAGON Architect Dellekamp Arquitectos+Pirwi Type of construction Complete Location Mexico Federal District,Mexico 2014

“It is a space cell, able to join other non-hierarchical, which makes it flexible, with the ability to react to different terrain and views.”

Dellekamp Architects + Pirwi, 2014, Mexico During Abierto Mexicano de Diseño

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In some cases, a unit is a whole house that can be combined with other units creating clustering and residential dispositions. In this particular example, instead, the unit is an octagonal space of almost 17 sqm.

This area is a cell, combinable in order to create a house: since it’s a room, it is possible to match many of them together in multiple variants, opening different views on the background.

In fact, the unit shape allows opening windows on at least seven sides of the room, as one has to be joined with a possible other room. Moreover, since it is possible to open any side of the space, the articulation of the house can have numerous aspects and organisations, giving the chance to be adapted to the terrain in which it is located.

The main constructive materials used for this prototype are prefabricated panels and, as in the case of the Hex Shelter by AIM studying prefab AFS, the geometric shape helps the unbuilt approach for Mexican Open entire structure to be more solid and Design 2014 safer than a normal cubical house. gl bal Furthermore, the connection of each inhabitants cell together makes the entire house stronger and, at the same time, 17 different scenarios easier to draw. mq 80% recycle The pitched roof is a peculiarity of this project: the inclination is quite 60% strong and it gives the chance to open windows on the ceiling and 40% construction probably also to install solar panels materials time to taste.

Since it is just a prototype, the 3D

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information about it are just few, but we can manage to understand the main ones. The prefabricated structure is probably designed in more items to be assembled in order to be trucked and delivered easily. For this reason, SIPs panels are often used in this kind of prefabricated structure because they meet fairly the insulation and heating requirements. The fact of being almost designed in pieces to build up on site makes the cost more affordable. The only aspect that doesn’t follow the ongoing project is that, even if the house is made up of more rooms as single cells, it takes a big space on the urban setting for its spreading.

There wouldn’t be any problem of space if it was set outside the city, however this consuming of soil wouldn’t be an appropriate and sustainable choice.

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A•SMALL WORK 2.2.4 The Pop-Up House

Prefabricated Outdoor space Two storeis Trucked Quick set-up

POP-HOUSE Architect Heijmans Company Type of construction Complete Location Amsterdam, Netherlands 2015

“Most of all, we’ve wanted these homes to inspire a feeling of positivity, high ceilings, space, light, a nice view – this project is a step in a new direction, away from permanent immovable properties”.

Arch. Van der Grinten, 2015, Holland These moveable wooden houses are designed for derelict city plots

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2D

S AY

1D A

S AY

YS

Y

4D A

This 45 sqm house is an interesting answer to the problem of unpleasant urban areas and the new graduates’ accommodation in Amsterdam, but it is also an overthrow of the concept of “temporary” in architecture.

The use of the vacant plots, in fact, helps the sustainability and young people, as their income is too high for the quality of social housing and, at the same time, too low for an independent house.

Once the vacant area is about to be built up, the house can be moved in another place: it is for this reason that the house, even if temporary and moveable, doesn’t prevent from being at the same time kind of permanent and immovable. Furthermore, the project tries to challenge in the design all the qualities of a permanent house, showing that to be a pleasant and functional house, it doesn’t have to be life-longed and fixed to the ground AIM Dwelling for unbuilt of the owner. young professional The prototype consists of two stories, delivered by truck and placed on site l cal in less than 24 hours, individually; inhabitants it is disposed a kitchen, a room, a bathroom and a large living room; 45 the illumination is really good mq 40% recycle because of the wide window, that lets the light come in and create 40% a positive atmosphere, according to 60% the designer’s intent. construction materials The structure is mostly in hard time plywood and prefabricated panels, with the presence of a steel frame 3D

NOT extendable lasting

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A•SMALL WORK that goes all around the perimeter of the external main facade. One unit derives from the connection of these two pieces on site, with all the finishes and furniture given

by IKEA, and the result is a two floors house that can accommodate just one occupant. Particularly significant is the design approach: from this one and the other examples set in Netherlands, it is clear that this Country gives more importance to a design that “is about people� and no more for chairs, as Talia Radford underlines in her report about the refugees situation in Vienna (Design is about people - including refugees, in Dezeen, 8 Sept, 2015).

If we consider the NGOs, most of them are from Netherlands and, usually, their projects follow partly a bottom-up approach: even if this is not a temporary postdisaster housing, the qualities that wanted to be achieved were those of a house able to recreate the atmosphere of home, the background of a family life and daily routine, giving all the time dignity and positivity to the occupant.

However, this unit is still out of the affordability of a lowincome people range, because it is thought for a medium salary of a young graduate, still in Amsterdam. In the case of a temporary housing, the house has to be able to yield in front of necessities such as a big family or the terrain, which means that compromises must be reached in dimensions, materials, and finishes.

A 45 sqm house for one occupant cannot be afforded by a person who lost his house.

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2.2.5 The Wikkel House “Wrap House meets the criteria for temporary or permanent housing. […] It is as much as three times more durable than traditional construction and has an expected life of at least 50 years. […] You can move the house to different locations if needed, or extend your floor space by adding one or more segments.”

Faction Factory Interview by Jessica Mairs, Dezeen 4 May 2016, Holland

Prefabricated Outdoor space Quick set-up Cardboard structure Insulation quality Sustainable Modular

WIKKEL HOUSE Architect Fiction Factory Type of construction Prototype Location Amsterdam, Netherlands 2016

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This project sums up in just one module all the typical features of a traditional house: picked roof, one floor, high quality finishes, all the facilities, an outside area etc.

The concept behind this mini house is the sustainability and the non-consumption of soil. In fact, starting from the used materials, this precedent is also thought to be placed everywhere without polluting the underground by using a concrete foundation, as it is common in most of the examples we saw until now. The high quality of this unit is made possible by the cardboard wrapped around a steel mould, hence the name “Wikklehouse” (which means “wrapped house”): structurally speaking, the cardboard is able to meet all the requirements like heating, acoustic insulation, constructive strength and a nice design.

Besides these characteristics, the design is based on a well thought prefabrication and various possibilities of customisation AIM like the number of modules, experiment for unbuilt pioneering construction infrastructures, and finishes; technology maintaining always the aim of gl bal keeping the house sustainable and inhabitants eco-friendly as much as possible.

In fact, according to some studies made by designers, this prototype is 16 mq 100% three times more eco-friendly than a recycle traditional housing (bringing back again the concept of temporary as a 100% new permanent), 100% recyclable thanks to the materials and natural construction materials time finishes and non polluting since the foundations are made of a slab of 3D

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concrete placed on the soil and not underground (it allows also moving the unit and placing it wherever the owner wants).

The structure of this house in basically a module of 1,2 m width for 3,5m height (5 sqm), made up of 24 layers of cardboard wrapped around the steel mould; outside, a waterproof breathable foil is applied to the layers and, on its external side, a wood panelling protects the structure.

The connection of more modules makes the unit characterised by a variety of length. It’s possible to add facilities like kitchen, bathroom, more rooms and so on, since the house is flexible to satisfy the owner’s wish, and he will be able to change it whenever he wants. The assembling on site of the single modules (made by a particular machine) takes just one day.

Modular growing: three segments from 25.000 € (excluding transport and placement).

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A•SMALL WORK 2.2.6 Further precedents MINI HOUSE “These so called friggebod7 sheds are very common but still very traditional in construction and look and feel, most often they look like shrieked copies of a large timber houses!”

Jonas Wagell, March 2009 Interview of Sarah Deng, Interior Design China, in jwda.se

According to Jonas Wagell, the designer of Mini House - a flat-pack delivery and quick set up 15 square meters house - the concept that drove the project was: first, the challenge to optimise an object already existing in the Swedish culture; second, the aim to suggest through this product the combination of “well-know and trusted materials and techniques in a new context”.

The result is a design product, where the size has nothing to do with lifestyle, standard or status, but it’s the quality the measurement criterion: a prefabricated volume of 15 square meters, able to be customised and extended in need or connected to another in order to create common spaces (connected by the short side, or manufactured in extended lengths, or linked by the pergola, generated by the pitched roof).

Materials such as plywood, solid pine, and EPS, allows having high insulation, lightness, less flexibility, and a large number of choices in the customisation of the unit, basically consisting in seven parts.

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As a stand-alone adjunct building, the Mini House shows all the peculiarities of a small house but, in this case, it is also able to meet in an old design new values of quality living, sustainability, time cycle, and costs.

In fact, the idea is to have a small volume that could be accessorised to taste (for example a kitchen, a sauna, or more a solar power unit and so on), maintaining at the same time that minimum living space orderly equipped with smart and easy-to-use storage facilities.

Consequently, this project holds some interesting attributes that should be present in a temporary housing unit: first of all, there is no need of a big house, when a small one is equipped in a smart way and with all the facilities a family needs. For instance, to fill the gap between shelter and permanent housing in a post-disaster situation, it is necessary during the unit design to take care of the comfort, protection and privacy that a house should offer and ensure.

Of course, this is very difficult when the speed of giving an accommodation prevails on the aesthetic and quality of the fabric. However, if it has been done a planning ahead, there should be features such as a thoughtful prefabrication able to see the project like a unit made of few constructive parts and able to be moved and placed easily and fast, the try to pollute as less as possible, a possible auto-generation of energy, the possibility of upgrading in space and facilities and last, but not least, the presence of a community atmosphere and conditions for family life.

In his intent of creating a small but valued house, Jonas Wagell has created a product able in part to satisfy the requirements of a temporary housing. Anyway, there are some aspects that don’t allow us to consider it perfect for

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A•SMALL WORK this aim: the foundations are in concrete and this means that once placed, the unit cannot be moved; moreover, such kind of structure is really hard to dismantle without polluting the ground; while speaking about costs, even if the materials are cheaper than others, the money spent for the transportation are still a big amount, because the unit is delivered only when completely finished and so it is necessary a special transportation truck.

However, it’s really interesting the use of panels SIPs and plywood like pine, as well as the internal distribution of pieces and finishing and, above of all, the strong link with the Swedish culture and the old as a new design.

7. Friggebod is in Sweden a small house that can be built without any planning permission on a land lot with a single-family or a duplex house. It is named after Birgit Friggebo, who was the Minister for Housing in 1979 when the new type of building was allowed.

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UNDEFINED PLAYGROUND “Some of the ball games are some of the most mainstream outdoor activities out there, and can take place spontaneously anywhere as long as there are willing participants and a ball.

And they are highly flexible with respect to season and time compared to other types of games.”

B.U.S Architecture In Archdaily, South Korea, 16 May 2016

In just 14,64 sqm, this team has designed a playground area, following the concept of a single unit able to change, rotate, move, and open in various ways.

In a city like Seoul, it is really hard to find a safe place where to play ball games and most of the time you have to book the area months earlier, turning a moment of activity that should be easy to practice into something hard even to achieve.

That’s why the project is basically a volume composed by other three triangular volumes, able to be turned around the main one.

Dependently on the users and the game to play, this undefined playground folds and unfolds itself creating different areas, walls for tennis and basketball, soccer field and hidden shelter where to rest.

In particular, it’s interesting the idea of the folding in order to obtain new spaces, almost temporary, and the possibility to be reset as before.

The main structure is in steel and wood and it is equipped with pivot points; as the dimension is quite contained, it is

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A•SMALL WORK possible to move it all at once to the site.

Relating to the project to be, this precedent is interesting because it uses the concept of folding: when a house is of contained dimension, but it has to meet all the requirement of a normal house, it is extremely important to think about smart solutions speaking about space, storage, and facilities.

Therefore, thinking about something that can be rotated and create a new space on demand, could be a valuable point to develop.

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03 SMALL-WORK. THE PROJECT [Worldwide]

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3.1

THE DESIGN PROCESS

3.1.1 Concept The design process behind a temporary housing is based on the satisfaction of some requirements; however, as every kind of project, it should start from a concept that conceals all the aspects it will follow visibly in the built unit.

The concept is represented by a complex transformation of a square: the square as the purest shape in architecture can be combined and modified to create a more articulated shape, which allows us to obtain formal variations.

Moreover, the square is also the main shape used in architecture for houses and dwellings because it’s the geometric element that introduces the concept of internal and external environment, the volume and the spatiality.

Associated to this shape, the triangle is the less deformable element in geometry, for this reason, the interaction between these two brings us to the articulation of a collaborative shape: equipped of more structural strength and formal variation.

It is important, in fact, to generate a variation in the elevation of the unit and in the clustering of more, to avid too much uniformity and monotony that causes stress and a feeling of ailment in the dweller.

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The process follows these steps: 1.Square as the basic module; 2.The tripling of the module; 3.The model on top is cut by an angle of 45 grades; 4.The addiction of a triple non-cut module and the one cut with its specular creates the main volume.

5.The duplication of the module and their connection gives to the final unit.

The fact of being originated by basic modules and submodules helps generating more dispositions and different units.

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A•SMALL WORK 3.1.2 Modularity The term “module” is defined by the physical presence in structure and functionality of the repetition of same shape elements.

“Furthermore, modularisation has evolved in an industrial context and there seem to be three basic drivers behind the desire for modularity: creation of variety, utilisation of similarities and reduction of complexities” (Defining Modules, Modularity and Modularisation. Evolution of the Concept in a Historical Perspective, Thomas D. Miller).

Frequently, according to Thomas D. Miller, modularisation is used referring to manufacturing obtained from mass customisation, which balances standardisation, rationalisation with customisation and flexibility.

Nowadays this compositional aspect reveals lacks in design because of the underestimation of the prefabrication concept itself: the fact of using elements produced following the same scheme in large numbers, often leads to the vision of an object with low qualities and values.

On the other hand, the positive and relevant aspects of this kind of constructive technology, when optimised, are the high efficiency and energy saving, the quality of living such as the air conditioning and noises, and, last but not least, the limitless design, the reduction of costs and the close relationship with the bio-construction as philosophy.

MODULARITY x2

x2

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3.1.3 Versatility VERSATILITY

circular clustering

linear clustering

random variable clustering

The choice of the modularity given by the prefabricated construction allows us to generate clustering able to create variety in the disposition of the temporary housing, going closer to the cultural and environmental context.

Dependently on the site, it is in fact possible to recreate typological disposition that calls back different realities: for example, internal closed or open courtyards, back gardens, linear or circular orientation for the solar incidence or particular cultural or environmental arrangements.

Besides the clustering itself, which customises the whole possible district, the material gives the chance to personalise even more the dwellings and generate feeling of identity with the place in people who are going to live there.

Generally, the material used should be the one found in place: taking advantage of raw materials existing on the site of the emergency helps in the improvement of the economy that probably stopped or went slower right after the tragedy.

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A•SMALL WORK 3.1.4 Sustainability SUSTAINABILITY LOCAL MATERIAL ADVANTAGES

AUTO SOSTAINABILITY

solar pannel

for solar energy

water tank

for idraulic system

WORLDWIDE EMERGENCY REUSE

MATERIAL RECYCLING

As consequences of the prefabrication type of construction, the sustainability is given by the choice of using materials easy to dismantle and recycle.

Dismantling and recycling, however, come from the second life cycle of the unit that has to be design in order to be disassembled, remodelled and reused. In this case, the necessity to have a future plan for the house is crucial, because we avoid the disgracing of the site with remnants.

In addition to the material and planning disposition, it is possible to equip the unit with elements that improve the saving of energy, like solar panels on the roof.

Limit the environment impact, means design with certain goals like energy efficiency and the improvement of the health, the comfort and the enjoyment of the dwellers.

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3.1.5 Montage In a situation of emergency, it is important to receive as soon as possible on site the dwelling in order to house those people who lost their belongings and home.

Usually, the unit is designed to be trucked and delivered in already made modules, or in flat packs to assemble on site.

While in the first case it is more expensive and takes more space to move the module, the second choice allows the transportation of more packs on a truck or trains and, most of all, the participation of the people in the building up, if the process doesn’t need specialised workers.

In fact, one of the problems of temporary housing after disasters is right here: seldom, temporary housings are conceived as something that could help the social relationships among people who lost their things and most of all their dignity, and so the sense of community.

People feel more willing to help each other in such a condition of necessity, and the possibility to have something to construct together brings back the sense of sociality and cooperation.

Moreover, the fact that the unit is mountable and demountable is clearly a positive aspect not only for people but also for the environment and the second life cycle of the unit.

MONTAGE

x4

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exterior components

floor components

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3.2

THE FINAL UNIT

Once identified all these requirements, the design of the unit tries to satisfy them all through considered choices, such us the modules and their assembling in the whole unit; the aspect of modularity that allows various clustering and the respect of environmental niceties; the variability given by the prefabrication structure, that brings also to a system able to respond by its own to the energy supply need; finally, the fact of being mountable and demountable that prolongs the unit life and ensures its further use.  

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04 A SMALL-WORK. THE PROJECT [Porto]

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After the analysis of the requirements that the unit must have and satisfy, we move to the description of an hypothetical situation of emergency in the city of Porto, where some real circumstances allow solving problems linked to the dwellings first and secondly to the municipality itself.

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4.1

THE CITY OF PORTO

Porto is the second largest city of Portugal after Lisbon and it is a Unesco Word Heritage.

It is characterised by the presence of the Douro River on the south and the Spanish borders on the north. It is a city filled with life, with character, with icons and symbols, with habits and ways of living, with landmarks, landscapes and a very particular horizon.

However, the reality is kind of different and more complicated: in fact, with the crisis the city became partially a ghost city with vacant houses and soil, where nobody wants to invest for renovation.

Moreover, this city has been chosen for this research for a reason: even if the last decades don’t show the presence of earthquakes or tsunamis, it is known that Porto and part of Portugal are often subject to fires, which represent now the main situation during the warm season.

However, there was a precedent event that caused huge damage in the city of Lisbon in 1755, that has been quotes by numerous writers and philosophers, and that suggests us to keep up the look at any other possible future events like that one.

This earthquake, in fact, provoked a tsunami and at the same time fire in the entire city because of the use of candles in churches and houses. Of course, at the time, it

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4.1.1 Urban gaps and dismissed building

GAPS IN THE URBAN FABRIC It is possible to reuse provisionally the high number of vacant lands by inserting the units During the first half of 1900, with the quick process of expansion of the urban sprawl, the city centre became the most blighted area of the city: setting off the alarm for a more active system of conservation of the heritage. The lack of building maintenance is the first reason of the

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deterioration that still characterised the urban texture.

It is the consequence of the moving of citizens from the centre (from the Ribeira district to the end of Rua da Santa Caterina) to social housing areas on the edge of the city and other satellites, outside the municipality, that represent the metropolitan area of Porto. This phenomenon causes the decrease of the inhabitants in the city centre and the growth in the average age because of the lack of the generational change and the economic crisis that has led to the close of numerous traditional commercial activity 8. “According to 2011 figures, 12.7% of all houses in the Greater Porto area is vacant, and it is even higher to 18.8% inside the municipality of Porto” (Boilingfrog, http://boilingfrogs. info/2013/08/01/porto-ghost-town/).

The main fear is that with the scroll of years, the city centre becomes more and more just like a western cinematographic set where empty facades are there just to impress the mass tourism.

The purpose of this design project is to re-use these areas: in the case of building, not renewed, the process provides the demolition of those that are not culturally or historically important, while on the other hand, if the land is completely vacant because of the previous demolishment of the structure, then it is possible to fulfil it with the units in various clustering as we’ll see in the chapter 4.2.

Using areas around the city allows having temporary housings directly linked with already existing centres of aggregation and, moreover, with all the facilities that Porto developed to ease people lives. In this way, people coming from disasters are able to get back to their usual activities such as work, schools and so on.

8

See Breda-Vázquez et al., 2000 for more information

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A•SMALL WORK 4.1.2 Rehabilitation Areas

AREAS REHABILITATION The city is marked by an evident number of vacant lands and dam aged structures , the unit is an occasion to rehabilitate them The urban fabric of the city is marked by an evident number of vacant lands and soils and dismissed buildings left to their future of damaged structures and degraded facade.

In particular, the city centre and the Ribeira district (the one that faces the Douro River, in front of Vila Nova de Gaia) are the areas that suffer this phenomenon the most, but with the activation by the government of upgrading projects, most of the buildings are undergoing to restoration. The link between the river and the city centre

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is in this way improved by these narrow streets on which look down the historical buildings, scenarios of the main affluence of tourism: for this reason, also the public spaces are under a system of renovation in the flooring, squares and places of social meeting.

However, sometimes the cost of this kind of renovation is really high and the government prefers the private to invest in such operation. The possibility that the design of these units gives to the redevelopment of those areas is their introduction to the site, if vacant, with a certain distance from the surroundings building in order not to harm the temporary structure.

4.1.3 Re-use of already existing links With the possibility to take advantage from these vacant areas, there is, in addition, the chance to use the already existing way of mobility and connection through the city, with some other niceties like the parking facilities for heavy goods vehicles and so the unloading of cargos such as the unit dwelling.

EXISTING WAY OF MOBILITY Being already in the city centre allows to take advantage from already existing links within the utility knots

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A•SMALL WORK 4.1.4 Soil consumption Usually, during an emergency, it is easier to use large areas where to set the dwellings, for examples football fields or sports arenas, however, the clustering obtained is something uniform and dull, without facilities or aggregation spaces.

When are not used spaces already headed to a specific use, the second option is to exploit those areas, untainted by buildings, producing consumption of soil and making hard the sustainability of the designed unit.

Even more so, to avoid this inconvenience it is necessary to dispose the units in lugares (Portuguese term for “locations/ sites”) already used but dismissed in order to have the chance to take advantage by the already existing concrete layers for the foundations. The re-use of these areas permits not to contaminate more the soil on the edge of the city causing a further spreading of the urban area: in fact, in a second time, the dwelling will be dismissed and, if the design does not care about the sustainability, it will leave pollution.

COMSUPTION OF SOIL

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Re-using areas ready to host the unit, avoids the already extended compsumtion of soil on the city edge

Design of worldwide temporary housing, contextualised in the city of Porto

4.2

SELECTED AREAS FOR THE PROJECT

The selected sites for the project are urban gaps, individualised during the period spent in the city of Porto for this study: these lugares are situated in zones of the city centre between the Ribeira district and one of the most important and ancient streets Rua da Santa Caterina.

Since they are in a particular context we talked about in the previous chapters, their description is quite clear: they belong to an old building, dismantled probably because structurally too ruined to fix up.

Their connection with the street is direct and practicable, and the links with other facilities of the city are made possible by their position and the roads system.

In all these areas the unit generates clustering: in three sites it is used the same unit in a linear, circular and random disposition, while in the other three, following the same kind of clustering, the units show a variation in the formal language and so the result is a compositional adjustment.

This avoids the sense of boredom and sameness, and creates visual glimpses and different sights.

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ZONE 1

Rua do Bomjardim 2151 mq

LINEAR CLUSTERING

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ZONE 2

Rua Carvalheiras 5800 mq

VARIABLE LINEAR CLUSTERING

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ZONE 3

Rua Fontainhas 4867 mq

CIRCOLAR CLUSTERING

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ZONE 4

Rua Morgado Mateus 1323 mq

VARIABLE CIRCOLAR CLUSTERING

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ZONE 5

Rua de Gonçalo Cristovão 2151 mq

RANDOM CLUSTERING

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ZONE 6

Rua da Ceuta 1160 mq

VARIABLE RANDOM CLUSTERING

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4.3

SPACE AND ORGANISATION

Dependently on grouping of the various units, the space dimension changes: for the basic unit studied, the meter square are 36 and are developed on two symmetric areas on the same floor, and a mezzanine located in one of these two.

In order to take advantage from the space, the distribution of the environments is thought to be interchangeable, customised and easily equipped with detachable furniture.

So a possibility is to have the kitchen and the living room in the block, without the mezzanine, where the lights come directly from a high window and a strip openness. In fact, this should be the place of the intercommunication among family members and the daily activities.

The other block comprehends a room and a bathroom and, on the mezzanine, another space could be used as a studio or an eventual further room.

This unit is basically designed for a young couple able to use all the spaces in the best way, however, the increasing in number of family members is not a problem since the mezzanine can be used as a further environment.

This temporary housing is able to house two to four people, eventually with the presence of a bigger family it is possible to add another block expanding the meter squares and giving more rooms and furniture.

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Speaking about the external language, the unit is finished with wood batten that can change in type accordingly to the area we are in at that moment and it runs all around the house, avoiding the sense of interruption of the surface and in the same way representing a customizable part.

In fact, being in Porto, means using the materials and elements which make the temporary housing a cultural expression of this city: for this reason the choice dropped on the typical azulejos: a fine terracotta tile tiled or painted, used for flooring and coatings usually blue. The interesting aspect is that this material is associated to a great and various expressing value: in fact, every single azulejo is part of a storytelling and the juxtaposition of one to another gives life to a magnificent feeling of popular tradition.

However, this material could be changed at the moment when the unit is used in another Country or city, for example, bamboo if we are in China, or mats of straw entwined together originally used for tatami in Japan etc.

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WEST ELEVETION

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EXTERNAL FINISHING in pine batten typically present in the wooded area around the city

ELL-ROUNDED PARTITION allows to change the previous internal environment in another one (ex. Room-Studio)

SPACE-SAVING STAIRCASE that brings to the mezzanine for a better use of the small space. The mezzanine could be an another room or a free space for other uses

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CONCLUSION With this study and research, the aim was to give a guideline on how design a temporary housing after disasters.

It started from a connection between the happening of tragic events and their reports made by important photographers that show two points of view upon the situation: a factual description of the matter and what is behind it, like its influences on the social background, the sense of community and the changes of living of people.

Secondly, speaking more concretely, it went on with the redaction of the requirements list the unit must satisfy to solve problems that often occur with the producing of inadequate solutions due to the hard conditions and the large-scale action.

The temporary housing must be considered as part of the reconstruction and recovery from the disaster, and so must be seen as a temporary structure, which includes also a second life as well as the concept of permanent.

With a detailed planning that stays ahead the design itself, it is possible to “focus more on people than on the units because more than a physical structure, a house is the space people inhabit” (D. Fèlix, J. M. Branco, A.O. Feio, Temporary housing after disasters : a state of the art survey, 2013).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Volumes -A. Cornoldi, F. Viola (a cura di), Nuove forme dell’abitare, Napoli, Clean edizioni, 1999 -B. Bargdoll, P.Christensen, Home delivery- Fabricating the modern dwelling, The museum of modern art, New York, Birkhauser, 2008 (catalogo mostra) -C. Aymonino (a cura di), L’abitazione razionale - atti dei congressi C.I.A.M. 1929-1930, Padova, collana Polis, Marsilio Editori, 1971 -C. Benedetti, Bacigalupi V., Materiali e progetto, 1996 -E. Taramelli, Mondi infiniti di Luigi Ghirri, Reggio-Emilia, Edizioni Diabasis, 2005 -F. Alison (a cura di), Le Corbusier, l’interno del Cabanon, Le Corbusier 1952 - Cassina 2006, Triennale Electa, 2006 -F. Purini, Comporre l’architettura, Bari, Editori Laterza, 2000 -G. Celati, Narratori delle pianure, Feltrinelli editore -G. Perec, La vita istruzioni per l’uso, Milano, Bur, 1994 -L. Benevolo, Le case dell’uomo, Bari, Laterza, 1978 -L. Bica (a cura di), S. Giedion, Scritti di Architettura 1928-1968Antologia critica, Palermo, D.Flaccovio Editore, 2001 -L. Gambi, Cultura Popolare nell’Emilia-Romagna. La casa dei contadini, Milan, 1977.

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A•SMALL WORK -L. Ghirri, 1978 - Kodachrome, Introduzione di Piero Berengo Gardin, Modena, Punto e virgola, 1978, 103 p., 27 c. di tav, 27 cm.

Biblioteca di fotografia, 2.

-L. Ghirri, 1982 – Progresso fotografico, Milano, casa editrice Progresso, 1982, [16] p., ill. 28,5x41,5 cm.

-R. Berardi, A. Pretelli, Casa città storia, Bologna, Patron editore, 1977 -R. Florio, T. Della Corte, La rappresentazione dello sapzio domestico 1, Dieci interpretazione dell’arte contemporanea, Officina Edizioni, 2008 -R. Piano, Giornale di bordo, 2005 -S. Marini, Architettura parassita: strategie di riciclaggio per la città, Quodlibet, 2008 -S.O. Chan-Magomedov, Moisej Ginzburg, Franco Angeli Editore,1977 -T. Herzog, M. Natterer J.Volz, Atlante del legno, 1998

Mixed Volumes - 1972 - Franco Vaccari, Luigi Ghirri, Fotografie 1970-1971, Modena, Tipografia Samar, 1972, 12 p., ill, 21 cm.

- 1972 - Misura, Carlo Cremaschi, Giuliano Della Casa, Franco Guerzoni, Adriano Spatola, Ferrara, Centro attivita visive, Palazzo dei Diamanti 15-1/6-2 1972, [fotografie di Franco Vaccari, Luigi Ghirri] - [S.l., s.n., 1972?] (Cento, Siaca) - [14] p., ill., 24 cm + 1 cartolina.

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-1974 - Luigi Ghirri: Colazione sull’erba, testi di Massimo Mussini, Roberto Salbitani, [1974], [21] c., ill., 21 cm. Mostra tenuta a Pisa.

-1984 - Viaggio in Italia, a cura di Luigi Ghirri, Gianni Leone, Enzo Velati, fotografie di Barbieri, Basilico, Battistella Castella, Cavazzuti, Chiaramonte, Cresci, Fossati, Garzia, Guidi, Ghirri, Hill, Jodice, Leone, Nori, Sartorello, Tinelli, Tuliozi, Ventura, White. Viaggio in Italia: Appunti: di Carlo Arturo Quintavalle, Verso la foce, reportage, per un amico fotografo: di Gianni Celati, Alessandria, Il Quadrante, 1984, 130 p., in gran parte ill., 26 cm.

-1986 - Esplorazioni sulla via Emilia, scritture nel paesaggio, di Ermanno Cavazzoni, Gianni Celati, Corrado Costa, Daniele Del Giudice, Antonio Faeti, Tonino Guerra, Giorgio Messori, Giulia Niccolai, Beppe Sebasta, Antonio Tabucchi, prefazione di Italo Calvino, descrizioni, resoconti di viaggi lungo la via Emilia dal XVI secolo a oggi, antologia a cura di Eleonora Bronzoni, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1986, 309 p., ill., 22 cm., dal fiume al mare, a pie del front.: Comune di Reggio Emilia, Regione Emilia-Romagna. Vol. pubblicato in occasione della mostra omonima tenuta a Reggio Emilia e Ferrara nel 1986.

-F. Tàvora, H. Roseta, J. Afonso, F. Martin, et all, Arquitectura Popular em Portugal, Lisbon, Associação Arquitectos Portugueses editor, 1980, vol. 1-2, pp.x

Articles and essays - C. Johnson, Strategies for the Reuse of Temporary Housing, in -Alejandro Aravena, Quartiere di abitazione Quinta MonroyElemental in “Casabella 742”, Marzo 2006 -Alta velocità, il sistema italiano in “Parametro 258-259”, LuglioOttobre 2005

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A•SMALL WORK -C. Johnson, Impacts of Prefabricated Temporary Housing after Disasters: 1999 Earthquake in Turkey, in “Habitat International”, March 2007 -D. Fèlix, J. M. Branco, A.O. Feio, Temporary housing after disasters : a state of the art survey, 7th May 2013, in http://hdl. handle.net/1822/23957 -D. Fèlix, J. M. Branco, R. Bologna, A.O. Feio, The role of temporary accommodation buildings for post-disasters housing reconstruction, in “Journal of Housing and the Built Environment”, 2015, vol. 30, issue 4, pp 683-699. DOI 10.1007/ s10901-014-9431-4 -E. L. Quarantelli, Patterns of sheltering and housing in US disasters, in “Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal”, 1995, vol. 4, issue 3, pp. 43-53 -F. Gallanti, Elemental, Aravena!, in “Domus 886”, November 2005, pp.35-41 -Filippo Alison (a cura di), Le Corbusier, l’interno del Cabanon, Le Corbusier 1952 - Cassina 2006, Triennale Electa 2006 -G. Byrne, Rebuilding in the city. Pombal’s Lisbon in “Lotus International”, 1986, n. 51, pp.7-23 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237678649_Strategies_ for_the_Reuse_of_Temporary_Housing - K. Frampton, L’evoluzione del concetto di abitazione 1870-1975 (e altri articoli) in “Lotus International 10”, Febbraio 1975 -La ricerca contemporanea nell’abitazione in “Lotus international 94”, Ottobre 1997 -M. Agnoletto, Smallness, in “Small Works. Area 98”, MaggioGiugno 2008, pp.152-167

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-Quartiere ZEN a Palermo (e altri articoli) in “Lotus International 9�, Febbraio 1975

Web Sites -http://cameronsinclair.com/rebuild/ -http://criticalconcrete.com/ -http://doportoenaoso.blogspot.pt/2010/12/os-bairros-sociais-noporto-i.html -http://inhabitat.com/hex-house-is-a-rapidly-deployable-affordablehome-for-disaster-victims/ -http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/artigo9321.PDF -http://www.archdaily.com/787420/undefined-playground-busarchitecture -http://www.domussocial.pt/assets/misc/img/Not%C3%ADcias_ Domus/ilhas_lan%C3%A7amento_livro/Livro%20Parte%201.pdf -http://www.domussocial.pt/assets/misc/img/Not%C3%ADcias_ Domus/ilhas_lan%C3%A7amento_livro/Livro%20Parte%202.pdf -http://www.habitarbonfim.pt/ -http://www.world-architects.com/architecture-news/submittedworks/Octagon_3070 -https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/bitstream/10316/24407/1/Porto.%20 Re%20Habitar%20a%20Cidade.pdf -https://thursdaygroup6.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/61/

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Videos -Shigeru Ban: Emergency shelter made of paper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q43uXdOKPD8 -Alejandro Aravena: My architecture Philosophy? Bring the community into the projects -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0I0Poe3qlg -Loft cube: Iconic Designs - The loft cube | euromaxx -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AWPtsqWU7Q -WikkleHouse: https://vimeo.com/156852806 -Hex House: Architects for Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK12vkvxUwA http://www.flashartonline.it/article/adrian-paci/

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ATTACHMENTS

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