Article Preview
TopIntroduction
Sheltering the victims is a fundamental problem in the aftermath of natural disasters such as earthquakes. In emergencies, governments typically implement conventional strategies base on unit-based solutions which involve tent cities and prefabricated houses. However, due to environmental durability, long production and shipping times, hard installation processes, high unit costs (UNHCR, 2007), or lack of suitable land, these options may not meet a sudden shelter demand, particularly in dense urban areas. As a response to this problem, temporary adaptation or adaptive reuse of existing structures can be a long-term, low-cost, and quick-response solution to meet the post-disaster sheltering needs of disaster victims in such areas.
Referred to as collective centers (CC) or mass shelters, pre-existing structures such as schools and sports halls are the most common examples of building adaptation in emergencies. In addition, many public buildings and community facilities including hotels, community centers, hospitals, factories, religious buildings, military barracks (UNHCR & IOM, 2010), town halls, gymnasiums, warehouses (Corsellis & Vitale, 2005; Sphere Association, 2018), and even unfinished buildings can be re-functioned as temporary collective centers. Although short-term (3-15 days) use of collective centers is recommended (UNHCR, 2007), existing buildings may often require longer-term use than expected. The main reason for this is the long preparation period for more suitable accommodation options. The examples indicate that the establishment of refugee camps with a capacity of 5000 people in Turkey took between 45-60 days. At first glance, it seems like an inadequate solution as long-term sheltering in CC's brings with it various risks. Yet, the UNHCR and IOM (2010) document posits that collective centers with proper selection, quality maintenance and life-supporting service infrastructure can offer an adequate temporary solution. However, a quick review of the relevant disaster literature reveals a lack of comprehensive studies for the systematical analysis of the existing building performance as post-disaster shelters and making rapid and effective selections. Previous studies commonly focus on temporary settlement site selections and selection criteria (Omidvar et al., 2013), unit-based shelter design and design criteria (da Silva, 2007; Sener & Altun, 2009), or life-cycle of shelter units (Arslan & Cosgun, 2008). A few of the current guides are largely management-oriented and they include a simple shelter checklist (American Red Cross, 2012; Martínez & Navaza, 2013).
This paper addresses sheltering as a complex design and decision-making problem and considers various scales such as shelter unit, building, and urban scale to analyze the shelter performance in-depth. In particular, the negligence of the design and building scale may result in inadequate collective shelters such as in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, or Yemen (Christensen, 2015). The living conditions in these examples are below the minimum humanitarian standards (Sphere Association, 2018). In the absence of clear assessment criteria and comprehensive assessment tools focusing on collective shelters, this study presents a collective shelter adaptive reuse potential (CS/ARP) assessment model to fulfill the gap.