HOUSING &
INFRASTRUCTURE
TAKBUHAN: Design of a Resilient Evacuation Center
Arch. Mary Ann A. Espina
College of Architecture
E-mail: [email protected]
Victims of disasters in hazard-vulnerable areas in the Philippines have instinctively
run to school buildings for refuge during times of disaster. Though common
practice, turning schools into evacuation centers creates more problems than
solutions, including, among others, unnecessary physical damage to the building,
poor sleeping and sanitation conditions for the refugees, inability of relief goods
to reach a widely dispersed refugee population, and the prevention of school
children from resuming classes during the recovery period.
The TAKBUHAN Evacuation Center addresses the urgent need for an
architectural design for a disaster-resilient structure that will solve commonly
encountered problems in emergency housing. It will serve as a safe, secure, and
responsive facility that will uphold dignity of life, which is often overlooked in the
response efforts of government and non-government relief-providers. The
building is specifically designed to address the needs of displaced peoples: it has
an adequate number of toilets and baths, storage space for relief goods, an
administrative office for relief distribution, and emergency water and electricity
facilities. It will be fully-enclosed, can be fitted with air-conditioning and is
designed to be resilient to typhoons, earthquakes and floods. An open area the
size of a football-field is also included in the design to serve as both an earthquake
evacuation zone and site for a surge or emergency hospital. When not in use as an
evacuation center, the structure can be used as a sports center.
Designed using lessons learned from previous disasters, as well as failures of
existing evacuation centers, the TAKBUHAN Evacuation Center is envisioned to
be the safest and most accessible place in a barangay for refugees as well as for
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