Post-emergency and project: procedural dynamics and architectural themes

The International Agreement, signed in 2015, between the UP Diliman University of the Philippines, College of Architecture, and the University of Naples Federico II, Department of Architecture, has implicated an extensive scientific collaboration in the field of design on the issues of post-disaster reconstruction after natural disasters. Common mechanisms of post-disaster emergency have been object of profound reconsideration starting from the assumption that, during the reconstruction phase, it is necessary to avoid two opposite attitudes: the first related to design solutions that seek formal nature balances; the second aiming to reproduce what existed before the disaster, without taking into account changes which may have occurred. Taking in consideration the very different situations found in the Philippines, an aspect that emerges with great precision in the post-emergency phase concerns the very long transition between the disaster and the reconstruction. This brings to experiment the design as a process which can bring together different techniques and tools, also multidisciplinary, capable of responding to the hard dynamic pressures, related to the economic, social and political conditions, that have determined a substantial increase of the devastating effects of the disaster, causing high vulnerability of the territory and buildings. Therefore, in this context, it is not appropriate to work on architectures and urban projects that are completed and defined in every part: it is instead necessary to take into account those that De Carlo called “open systems”. A design investigation about these issues and methodologies has been carried out throughout the text, particularly referring to the case of the churches on the island of Bohol, destroyed or significantly damaged by the earthquake in October 2013