Designing to Heal: Planning and Urban Design Response to Disaster and Conflict

摘要

The world in which we live is by no means lacking in disaster and conflict, the impacts of which are often far-reaching and long lasting for the survivors who face an arduous journey to recovery. In her recent book Designing to Heal Jenny Donovan sets out to explore one self-proclaimed 'small but critical' element of the post-disaster recovery process; the role that urban design can play in the endowment of reconstruction conditions that foster the ability of survivors to overcome the often debilitating sense of loss and despair that follows in the wake of disaster. Donovan's assertion is that urban designers are positioned to significantly impact on the creation of renewed urban landscapes that nurture recovery through the elaboration of reconstructive design processes that work not merely for but with survivors. This core contention speaks to the necessity to instil collaborative processes of design in post-disaster reconstruction, a discourse strongly reminiscent of the recognition of the complexities that contribute to the creation of physical space and place identity present in contemporary planning literatures.