(Re)adaptation of historic urban spaces in post-disaster recovery
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Urmi Sengupta
Queen's University Belfast United Kingdom
u.sengupta@qub.ac.uk
Author(s):
Natural disasters are becoming more frequent with far-reaching impact on cities. In historic cities, natural disasters disrupt lives and livelihoods through not only the damage they cause on the social and physical fabric but also trigger psychological trauma at deeper level. Buildings and monuments are commonly prioritized in post-disaster reconstruction but the role of historic urban spaces, along with other open spaces is overlooked. The paper therefore seeks to shift the focus from buildings to open spaces by examining how historic urban spaces interact with urban fabric and cultural practices to help build resilience. This shift has been an emergent theme in cultural geography through the acknowledgement of the role of open spaces in improving disaster response and recovery (Allan et al., 2013; Brosius and Michaels, 2020). Drawing on interviews with survivors and rescuers and field observations of earthquake-ravaged Durbar Square in Kathmandu, this paper links features of urban spaces with prevailing social and cultural practices that triggered specific community actions to understand how historic urban spaces have allowed local values to be expressed in the aftermaths of the disaster creating a coping mechanism. This layering of various personal experiences on the scientific inquiry allows us to first approach historic urban spaces as an object that enables user actions to emerge during disaster and be improvised in a certain way that helps to build resilience; and second to explore cultural and religious practices that link back to the objects and spaces to derive psychological recovery from the trauma. Ultimately the paper argues that urban spaces have inherent functional, performative and restorative qualities that play an important role in post-disaster recovery, and more attention needs to be given to them in planning and urban studies. In terms of methodological contribution, the paper is a critical enquiry into urban space as a conceptual category and an interrogation of its relationship with disasters and resilience.
References
1. Allan, Penny , Bryant Martin , Wirsching Camila , Garcia Daniela & Rodriguez Maria Teresa. (2013). The Influence of Urban Morphology on the Resilience of Cities Following an Earthquake. Journal of Urban Design 18(2): 242-262.
2. Brosius C. and Michaels A. (2020). Vernacular Heritage as Urban Place-Making. Activities and Positions in the Reconstruction of Monuments after the Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal, 2015–2020: The Case of Patan, Sustainability, 12, 8720.
Rethinking disasters and social change: Beyond hope and despair