that we can learn a lot about participatory design.
Essentially, in participatory design, architects and
residents jointly design a dwelling that is culturally
and climatically appropriate. The architects,
although giving up their traditional lead role and
professional responsibility, assist and technically
guide residents, CBOs and their local builders, on
disaster-resistant design.
Where and when to use participatory
design?
Participatory design can be used to develop plans
for individual households, but this approach is
not necessarily as effective in meeting the needs
of large target groups. In non-disaster situations,
participatory design is generally used by architects
working with communities, e.g. in a street,
apartment block, or an organised group of people
who want to build anew or turn an existing building
into houses, but the key is in striking a balance
between these individual needs and plans, and the
needs of the community. Often the result is the
development of a number of standard house plans,
from which community members then can choose.
This method could be applied to reconstruction
projects.
It is possible, however, to incorporate a degree
of flexibility in order to respond to individual needs.
One solution is to jointly decide on the shape,
structure and essential internal divisions of a
house, but then leave it to the inhabitants to decide
on some of the infills and finishes (anything that
has no essential structural role, including resisting
disasters). The idea of separating “supports”
(structure) from “infill” (internal completion)
in housing was first suggested by the Dutch
architect N. John Habraken (1972), as a way of
giving inhabitants a meaningful participatory role
in design. Another option is to allow a certain
degree of modification of standard house plans,
through collaboration of a designer with individual
households. The advance of computer-aided design
(CAD) has now made this a lot easier, as illustrated
by Practical Action’s post-tsunami reconstruction in
Sri Lanka. CAD systems, however, are still relatively
expensive. Wikipedia provides a comparison of
different types of software; see the Resources
section.
Participatory design can also be used to design
other community buildings, such as community
centres, schools; health centres; markets or
commercial areas; workshops; communal water and
sanitation blocks, etc. This is closely linked with
participatory planning (see PCR Tool 7: Planning
with the People), and is best done immediately
after, or even during, the planning process. Whilst
planning is mainly concerned with settlement
layout, the provision of infrastructure, and the
position of house plots, participatory design will
Participatory design in Bangladesh
then specify how these plots are to be filled in. The
discussion with communities on design needs to
address house plans as well as specifications for
materials and components. The design group will
also need to think about how the houses will be
built - by themselves, by local builders or others
- as the availability and skills of those builders
determine which construction technologies are
feasible. Furthermore, they will need to consider
whether materials can be salvaged, produced and
supplied locally, or have to come from elsewhere.
It is important to consider at this stage that using
local materials and builders can also serve to
rebuild local livelihoods.
Design with communities has limitations. It
may be difficult: if a group of disaster-affected
people is not really a community, e.g. if they are
households prioritised from an official waiting list
where it may then be very time consuming for them
to build relations and generate sufficient trust for a
communal design process to work. Similarly, it can
at times be difficult in urban contexts, particularly
if these contain much more heterogeneous
categories of people. There can also be problems
if there is a mixture of tenants and owners and
tenure issues cannot be easily resolved or landlords
suppress tenants’ right to involvement. These
issues may be resolved by dividing such groups
into more homogeneous smaller groups for which
individual plans can be designed.
Who needs to be involved?
A participatory development process tends to
involve different parties that can be divided into
the community to be housed and outsiders who
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