Cramming houses onto small plots and building with asbestos are mistakes that must not be repeated in the clean up of the recent earthquakes in Sumatra, Indonesia, Dr David O'Brien of the University of Melbourne said.
O'Brien, from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning said it's important that humanitarian agencies learn from the housing built after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
"Although reconstruction agencies constructed vast numbers of housing in very trying circumstances, there is clear evidence that residents have found it necessary to remodel, renovate and transform their houses to suit their own and broader community needs," he said.
Replacement housing was often too small for Indonesian families, who live in extended family groups, and the houses were built on plots so small that renovating was difficult, if not impossible.
According to O'Brien, some of the houses also pose a health risk to locals. "Some of the houses that were made in Banda Aceh were made from asbestos. Now you really hope that they wouldn't make that kind of mistake again. The people are aware that they are living in asbestos houses. They're not happy about living in asbestos houses. You walk around are you hear people with a terrible cough and you hope that it's just a cold and not something more substantial than that."
O'Brien, who is overseeing the research project "Transformation of Post-Disaster Housing: The Case of Aceh, Indonesia", says while there are many critiques of the post-disaster housing, very few evaluations attempt to understand the nature and quality of the reconstruction houses and draw lessons from them.
Approximately 30 per cent of the reconstructed houses in Indonesia are empty, partly because, according to O'Brien, too many were built, but also because they don't suit the cultural needs of the community. A large number of the new houses were also built in areas likely to be hit by another tsunami in the future, making locals hesitant to reside there.
"It's a real balancing act between being expedient with the sums and being able to house people quickly, but also being able to make sure that the houses are the types of houses that people are happy to live in."
