Resilience by Design

This book discusses that disasters, whether natural or man-made, are essentially a humanphenomenon.Whena city becomes gridlocked and its resources depleted, the collective resilience of those whoremain on the ground becomes critical to its immediate survival and recovery. The author argues that in order to build resilientfutures for our urban environment, we need more than the skills of architects, engineers, andplanners. Support of local communities and policymakers is also needed. The book revisits therecent catastrophic events: the earthquakes in Port-au-Prince and Christchurch, and thehurricane in New Orleans, and places emphasis on the social, cultural, and political processes ofrebuilding houses, facilities, and infrastructure that often go unnoticed. Understanding the widercontext for how a built project comes to be, the author argues, is a solid indicator of its longevity thanby the measure of itsmaterial characteristics alone, and gives us reasons to question the validity ofour intentions as designers of the future. This bookprovides strategies for thinkingabout, assessing, and developing ways for place-makers from all disciplines to becomeresponsible citizen designers of our cities.