A systems view of temporary housing projects in post‐disaster reconstruction

TLDR

Natural disasters expose highly vulnerable informal settlements in developing countries, and reconstruction projects must balance urgent shelter needs with long‑term sustainable development, a tension reflected in conflicting policy paradigms. The study investigates how different organizational designs influence temporary housing solutions in two post‑disaster settings. Using a dynamic systems framework, the authors link strategic team design to the development of tactical technical proposals for temporary housing. The case studies reveal that a coherent sequence of immediate shelter, temporary housing, and permanent reconstruction is often lacking, and that project performance depends directly on team design and management.

Abstract

Natural cataclysms (earthquakes, hurricanes and so forth) become natural disasters when they coincide with vulnerabilities; unfortunately, informal settlements in developing countries are only too often highly vulnerable – a reality amply and unhappily confirmed by available statistics. In this context, reconstruction projects are sandwiched between the short‐term necessity to act promptly and the long‐term requirements of sustainable community development – a situation that is currently reflected in alternative and conflicting paradigms at the policy level. Adopting a case‐study approach, we explore the use of temporary housing within two post‐disaster environments, where the impact of different organizational designs leads to fundamentally different solutions to the short‐term housing problem. Our research adopts a dynamic systems approach, associating strategic organizational team design with the development of tactical technical proposals. Two case studies from Turkey and Colombia show that a coherent approach to the sequential stages of providing immediate shelter, temporary housing and permanent reconstruction is not always obtained. The research results emphasize that the performance of reconstruction projects is directly linked to the design and management of the project team.