4th International Conference on Building Resilience, Building Resilience 2014, 8-10 September 2014, Salford Quays, United Kingdom
Guomin Zhang*, Sujeeva Setunge, Stefanie van Elmpt
School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC3001, Australia
School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC3001, Australia
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-3-99253824; fax: +61-3-96390138.
E-mail address: kevin.zhang@rmit.edu.au
Abstract
Housing that makes use of the ubiquitous general purpose shipping container is becoming more commonly seen as a useful way of reusing the empty vessels as valuable accommodation. In particular, the application of shipping container temporary housing is suited to post-disaster situations, design examples of which can be found in the literature. However, ensuring the success of implementing such projects in a post-disaster setting requires investigation into the social considerations of temporary housing. This research takes a qualitative approach, focusing particularly on case studies of temporary housing experiences following the Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Christchurch Earthquake in 2011 and a field study of 2009 Black Saturday bushfire-affected communities in Victoria, Australia. Key social factors found to be significant to the success of shipping container temporary housing projects relate to flexibility in ownership, reuse and siting arrangement, in addition to robust pre-disaster planning by authorities, taking into account the varying characteristics of different types of disasters.