Living Heritage Pathways towards community-driven post-disaster reconstruction
November 7, 2024 | 17:00 - 18:30
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Summary
The proposed networking event aims to explore how community-led post-disaster reconstruction can revive, maintain, and transform urban 'living heritage'. Additionally, it will discuss how 'living heritage' can effectively support community mobilisation and collaborative urban development in post-disaster contexts.
The concept of 'living heritage' encompasses both tangible and intangible elements, including places, people, practices, knowledge, artefacts, events, and memories. It serves as a link between post-disaster reconstruction and aspects like livelihoods, social practices, planning, land rights, landscape restoration, local knowledge, craftsmanship, memory, and belonging. Every urban resident and stakeholder has valuable insights to contribute to the discussion on living heritage. Thus, we have chosen to focus on this theme as a common ground to explore approaches and pathways towards community-led post-disaster reconstruction.
The event is jointly organised by Architecture Sans Frontières UK (a member of Architecture Sans Frontières International) in partnership with the Asian Coalition of Housing Rights and its associated built environment professional network, Community Architects Network. This collaboration includes the participation of local CAN affiliates Lumanti (Nepal) and Hunnarshala (India). By bringing together these prominent built environment organisations, the event will catalyse dialogue among a diverse group of stakeholders engaged in urban development, community-led planning, heritage preservation, and post-disaster recovery.
The event will consist of three main components:
1) Presentations (30 minutes): Panellists will deliver brief presentations showcasing their involvement in community-led reconstruction in specific contexts. The focus will be on practical processes and methodologies for mobilising communities around the tangible and intangible aspects of 'living heritage'.
2) Group Work (30 minutes): Panellists and attendees will collaborate in small groups to broaden the definition of 'living heritage' based on the presentations and their own experiences. Resulting reflections will contribute to a conceptual map of 'living heritage', capturing diverse perspectives on the topic.
3) Collective Discussion (30 minutes): Panellists and attendees will participate in a facilitated discussion on the capacities and institutional frameworks needed to scale up community-led post-disaster planning. This will identify key challenges and opportunities for promoting community-led approaches in reconstruction settings.
This networking event offers a platform for attendees to engage in dialogue with practitioners, professionals, community leaders, and government officials on their experiences in supporting, promoting, and facilitating community-led post-disaster reconstruction.
Objectives
This event will explore the pivotal role of community-led planning in post-disaster reconstruction, particularly after earthquakes. The purpose is to create more inclusive cities, localise the Sustainable Development Goals, and implement the New Urban Agenda.
The event has 3 main objectives:
1) Knowledge Sharing: Disseminate insights on community-led post-earthquake reconstruction to urban practitioners, grassroots organisations, local governments, and international agencies. Participants will benefit from shared experiences spanning various regions and project phases, including the work of ASF-UK in Antakya, Turkey since 2023, Lumanti's contributions to Nepal's rural towns since 2015, and Hunnarshala's extensive rehabilitation efforts in Kutch, India since 2001.
2) Peer-to-peer learning: Encourage mutual learning among practitioners, professionals, and community leaders in facilitating community-led post-earthquake reconstruction and ‘living heritage’ rehabilitation. The discussions will delve into the necessary capacities and institutional frameworks for scaling up community-led post-disaster planning.
3) Collaboration Platform: Establish a dynamic platform for collaboration on community-led reconstruction and 'living heritage' rehabilitation. By bringing together ACHR/CAN and ASF-UK, the event will explore common approaches to community-led planning in post-disaster settings, while enabling future collaboration with individuals and institutions engaged in this field.