Designing Resilient Housing

Architects, engineers and other professionals must take action in the development of the global resilient design strategy for areas affected by natural hazards. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, draught and brush fires are increasingly occurring in different part of the world due to climate change. In times of crisis, the whole world should act to help refugees and environmental migrants with the recovery and rebuilding efforts. Designers have the opportunity to propose housing solutions that can help people, protecting them from natural hazards with safer homes and cities. We need to take action now.

The goal of this online course is to generate designs for resilient housing for the people living in areas endangered by natural hazards. The participants in this course will design affordable and easy to build houses, which could be implemented by OCHA, USAID, WBG, and other international organizations. They will work in teams of architects, planners, engineers, and social workers from all over the world. After the course, a selection of the projects will be placed the Open Online Academy website OOAc.org, so anyone can download and use them. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Course participants will learn about the design of resilient architecture and how it can be implemented both in rural and urban settings. They will improve their design and collaboration skills, working with a global community of professionals from all over the world. They will be learning from each other, as they will present their work publicly each week and receive feedback from the professors and fellow students. The work will be done in teams, which will work together on developing integral projects that include aspects of architectural design, structural engineering, building technology, social space, community development, economic feasibility, sustainability and resilience.

Week 1: Natural Hazards and Areas Affected.

Week 2: Resilient Design Precedents

Week 3: Spatial Design

Week 4: Resilient Unit Design

Week 5: Unit Aggregation Strategies

Week 6: Urban Design

Week7: Project Submission and Jury