The Use of Knowledge and Aboriginal Art to Achieve Low-Cost Temporary Shelter Case Study: Pakistan Floods 2010

Need for shelter after disasters is the major challenge for governments, humanitarian agencies and most importantly of all for the affected people. After the seasonal rainfall in 2010 in Pakistan, one of the worst floods in its history and one of the major disasters of human society in the last century were occured. Following the emergency response in the rehabilitation phase “one room shelter approach” was proposed by organizations supporting people. These shelters were originally designed for temporary housing, but if they want, they could extend and use as a permanent shelter. In 2010, five different types of these shelters were built in the south of Pakistan. The aim of this study is to review and identify the features of these low-cost shelters that is built with the knowledge and Aboriginal art.
This study reviews documents, literature and written texts and also the internet database in order to understand methods of constructing “one room shelters”. The procedure of this study began with gathering a lot of information about emergency and rehabilitation phase and then it concentrated on ways to achieve one room shelters.
Findings: The results of this research are classified into two parts: The first part is a brief review about 2010 Pakistan flood and emergency response phase; in the second part, it will be discussed about the organizing phase and identifying different types of one-room shelters in detail.
Features such as the type and scale of the incidents, the need for shelter and the effects of disasters on resources and the local economy require the necessity of using local solutions for the temporary or permanent shelter. Some features of shelters such as being economical, flood resistant, applying local materials and skills in implementation, Training families to rebuild and repair their homes in the future floods are features that were taught from this method and it can be used for similar situations.