support the development process. In the case of
participatory design, the latter will always include
an architect or otherwise suitably qualified designer.
This person may be supported by an engineer who
can advise on making buildings disaster resistant
and on services required, such as water. The
outsiders may also include a representative of the
agency funding the building(s), and possibly a
representative of the local authority. One ‘outsider’
people should facilitate the design process, and
ensure every participant can have a say. It is
important not to have too many outsiders, however,
as they may dominate discussions.
On behalf of the community, it is important
that all sections are represented, but it is not a
requirement that every household takes part. It
becomes difficult to run a design workshop if there
are more than 30 participants, and it is often
possible, in relatively homogeneous communities,
to develop a series of standard house plans with
the participation of less. It is preferable for a
community to select its own representatives, unless
there are good reasons not to, e.g. if the selection
process could be biased. There needs to be
sufficient women representation as women’s design
priorities often differ to those of men. It is also
useful to have some older participants who may
know more about the history, culture and tradition
of housing in the location, and have a memory of
previous disasters as well as young participants
who have more formal education. Local builders
have valuable knowledge of vernacular technologies
and designs. It is important to remember that,
following a disaster, the proportion of households
with missing, ill or disabled members can be much
higher than usual; those households may have
special design or construction requirements, and
therefore need proper representation.
If there are a number of very different sections
in a target group – a heterogeneous community
a participatory design process can become very
difficult, as it may be hard to reach agreement. One
solution for such cases is to divide the target group
into smaller sub-groups and have a participatory
design exercise with each of those. Sometimes,
communities decide themselves to form smaller
groups; this quite often happens when they decide
to organise the construction of clusters of houses
themselves, in mutual aid. Such groups tend to
accommodate a limited number of households,
frequently between about 10 and 30, as the
management of larger groups in mutually aided
construction is quite complex. In such cases, it
may also be preferable to have a participatory
design exercise with each of those groups.
The participatory design process
A participatory process for designing houses in a
reconstruction programme needs a good facilitator.
This is not necessarily the architect or engineer,
but could be another member of a support agency
with the right skills. The process may involve the
following steps:
1. Determine design requirements. Organise
meetings with small groups of people and ask
them how they design and build their houses,
and use the space in them. If, in a separate
needs assessment (see PCR Tool 4, Assessment
of Reconstruction Needs and Resources),
people have listed economic activities, seasonal
calendars, or daily activities, it is useful to
bring these into the discussion too, as these
can highlight livelihood and other activities that
may have to be accommodated in or around the
house. Distinguish the activities and needs of
men and women.
2. Discuss disaster resistance. Ask the groups what
they normally do to protect their houses from
natural hazards. Have some houses received less
damage than others during the recent disaster?
Why do people think this is so? Can some of the
local designs and construction technologies be
retained for reconstruction? Would they have to
be improved? (see PCR Tool 3, Learning from
Disasters).
3. People produce sketches. Ask the groups to
produce some outlines of how their houses
might look like using pens and papers (or even
lines in the soil, they could be photographed
to retain the sketches). Ask them to think
about what they would like to retain from their
traditional house types. Aim to get approximate
floor plans for a ground floor and any upper
storeys (if there is a need for those). If some
people can draw well, they could be asked to
produce elevations too. It can be helpful to give
names to the rooms, and write in them what
activities take place there. The facilitator should
keep in mind that producing a vast number of
drawings would create a lot of work and time;
experience tells us that five or six type designs
are sufficient for most locations, and that people
rarely select more than three out of those. This
may mean that compromises have to be reached
between groups over some details.
4. Groups produce models. Groups use the
sketches to produce housing models, using
wood, hardboard, plastic, canvas etc. Models
of individual houses should not be smaller
than one twentieth of the real size. People can
make some changes to the sketch plans on
the models, as the purpose of the modelling
is to create a clearer picture and encourage
further discussion. Any changes made on the
models should be marked on the sketches too.
The facilitator should remind people to include
measures to mitigate disasters in the models, as
well as the sketches, as discussed in step 2; if
there are no appropriate local disaster-resistant
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