This document discusses how "unnatural" disasters caused by inadequate responses to weather events and gentrification have exacerbated socioeconomic inequities globally. The author argues that events like the housing crisis in South Africa and Hurricane Katrina in the US revealed missed opportunities for architects to act as second responders and ensure durable shelter for all citizens impacted. The author describes challenging their students to design renewable and water resistant shelter prototypes to address displacement, drawing inspiration from a cardboard shelter design. The paper aims to promote collaboration between architects, academics, and government agencies to better prepare for and respond to future unnatural disasters.

1. ABSTRACT
PART ONE
CONTINUED
CREDIT: TINA HOVSEPIAN
CARDBORIGAMI® FOUNDER
CREDIT: A. MINIFIELD, C. JEFFERSON
STUDENT
CREDIT: S. YARBROUGH, T. GORDON
STUDENTS
CREDIT: Q. BROWN, P. COUCH, J. MCCLAIN
STUDENTS
CREDIT:A.WASHINGTON,R.GHOLSTON,
R.MUHAMMAD-STUDENTS
Since 2005, “unnatural” disasters caused by inadequate response to weather events and
gentrification have unearthed socioeconomic inequities on a global scale. More specifically,
the need for shelter in response to such calamity has been grossly inadequate, and at times
apathetically dissonant.
In this paper, I argue that events like the “informal” housing crisis of Blikkesdorp in
South Africa and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which disproportionately affected
African Americans, renters, people with low incomes, and the elderly both posed missed
opportunities for architects to act as second responders in hazard response. Essentially,
how then can the practice and pedagogy of architecture protect every citizen’s right to
durable and satisfactory shelter amid widespread destruction of the built environment cased
by conflict or natural disaster?
As a full-time professor of architecture at Tuskegee University, I was inspired by an ingenious
solution by Tina Hovsepian, an alumnus of the University of Southern California, who created
Cardborigami ®, a recyclable cardboard shelter intended to shield displaced citizens from
the elements. In her research, Hovsepian focused on the residents of Los Angeles’ Skid Row
district, characterized by its squalor, drug use, mental and physical health disorders. As
a result, I dove-tailed the theme of displacement with the subsequent fall semester in third-
year design studio.
My students addressed the socioeconomic impact of hazard response through two design
problems. First, I challenged my students to construct full-scale, renewable, and water
resistant shelter prototypes. These prototypes emphasized privacy, atypical of evacuation
shelters. Second, I merged the cap-stone design problem with ongoing research for mass
evacuations by the Alabama Rural and Urban Design Action Team (RUDAT) in the wake of
the North Alabama Tornadoes. In this paper I examine how architectural pedagogy can
supplement governmental initiatives and affect policy making.
Whether a refugee, or evacuee, or displaced resident, theses adjectives describe humans
who are victims of circumstance, and I argue that architects should be driven by a
higher humanitarian calling to provide adequate living conditions for them in the face of
catastrophe. This paper is written to promote collaboration among architects, academics,
planners, and government agencies to be proactive against future “unnatural” disasters.
These guiding principles address the specific needs of internally displaced persons
worldwide.
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SOS:UNNATURAL DISASTERS, THE ARCHITECT, AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT