SHELTER: EGOISTIC ARCHITECTURE AT THE EXPENSE OF THE PEOPLE

By Muhammad Mukmin

Sheltering mechanism has been around for many decades in catering the needs for
the affected people from natural disaster like flood and hurricane, and man-made disaster like
war and genocide. From a simple tent to paper, variation of design can be seen for a shelter
due to passionate architect that has been pushing the limit of the design. Though seems to be
beneficial, this scenario triggers a phenomena known as egoistic architecture. Egoistic is a
form of morality that deals with self-interest as its foundation (Egoism - Definition of egoism in
English by Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.). Originating from the word ‘I’, egoistic exist in the form of
ethical egoism, psychological egoism and rational egoism (Ego - Origin and meaning of ego
by Online Etymology Dictionary, n.d.). This text will look at the impact of the egoistic
architecture on the human and why architects must know about it.

As disaster always gain attention from media, it becomes a way to get recognition for
architect. After disaster, usually there articles are written to cover the unique design of
shelters. It sparks the competition among the architects. It has been proven to be very
beneficial to the people as many creative ideas keeps on popping. The diversity created has
solved issues of privacy (especially for family) and could prevent disease outbreak from
waterborne-vector. The ideas are endless. From shift pods by Christian Weber (Buckley,
2017), modular capsule by César Oreamuno (Equipo Editorial, 2016), shelter with canvas
insulation by DMOA Architects (Santos, 2016) to plastic wires shelter by 12-years old Max
Wallack (Jordana, 2009), the innovations are stunning with variation of materials that can be
sourced from locals. In terms of material, unlikely material like paper has been proven to be a
valid choice (Archdaily Editorial Team, 2014). With foundation of such materials, the cost of
making shelter can be cut down and the rest of the budget can be allocated for post-disaster
management like rehabilitation and recovery processes, and pre-disaster management like
training and research. Note that emergency response is just one part of the disaster
management. Strengthening both post-disaster and pre-disaster management could increase
resiliency of the community.

Figure 1: Paper Shelter by Shigeru Ban Figure 2: Maggie Shelter by DMOA

Even so, the blooming creativity and innovation has led to other issues. Oversupply of
the shelter is quite common during emergency response. The focus on provision of shelter
overshadow other needs like basic hygiene necessities (The Strait Times, 2015). Competition
among architects creates high number of shelters, though the shelters are mostly occupied
and at certain areas, are not enough. Lack of advertisement from media has led to this issues.
As the number of the shelter is high, so does the number of wastage produced by the shelter
after disaster. Hardly any article covers the “what happened to the shelter after evacuation is
done?” question. Apparently waste management gain so less attention that it is ignored by
many architects. Prioritizing the appearance and the functions by neglecting post-
management of the shelters is a major mistakes done by many shelter design. Lack of
innovation in recycle and reuse of the shelters would leave the shelter as useless thrash after
flood. As what has happened to ten thousand IKEA shelters, due to fear of fire, the shelters
are currently unused (Fairs, 2017) and no action is taken to reuse or recycle the shelter. Lack
of post-management consideration for shelter design lead to such situation.

Sustainable approach for the shelters that considers the life-cycle is crucial to avoid
wastage. Architects need to look at the possibility of reusing the shelter by taking part of the
shelter to be used for other purposes or holistically revamp the function of the shelter as
another product. Efficient waste management of the shelter could reduce the cost of upcoming
provision of emergency shelter. However, the sustainable approach and its execution in
strengthening resiliency of the community is no doubt would only prepare the public against
the disaster. Post-disaster impact is as severe as the impact from disaster. The approach
taken totally neglects the pre-flood management and post-flood management. From
preparation, training, and rescue operation to recovery process (physically and mentally), the
proposal approach for a better wastage management of shelter still neglects the crucial
management of disaster. No coverage on other approaches leave the people struggling for
post-disaster and pre-disaster management. People are forced to figure out their own way of
standing back on their feet. As disaster approach, the only strategy the locals have would be
stockpiling with hopes that the rescue team would come for help when needed.

Looking at other aspects, disaster has been given a chance by opening new door for
small architecture firm to break through the world market. As mentioned previously, many
names appear in shelter design are solo architect or even kids that just happen to have a
really unique idea of how a shelter should be. This uniqueness attracts the media for a wider
coverage. Increment of public donation is expected when more coverage is done (McKenzie,
2011). It is just unfortunate that the financial contribution would be shifted to the creation of
shelters and emergency response instead of increasing the resiliency of the community as a
holistic approach. It is a norm to see the media coverage on the affected people during
disaster and how swift it shifts the attention to architect afterwards, leaving the affected people
hanging.

Hunting for recognition by architect sparks competition that improve design idea.
Diversity and creativity is good as it helps in creating a resilient community. But it can lead to
technical issues of undersupply and oversupply that leads to wastage. Post-disaster
management is expected to resolve the issues of undersupply, oversupply and wastage. Even
so, the approach that is focused on emergency response like shelter is not holistic. Increment
of public contribution via advertisement by architect could be used to increase donation for a
holistic disaster management purposes, but with division of the donation and attention, we
would go back to square one.

References
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Ego - Origin and meaning of ego by Online Etymology Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved February
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