شالوده شکنی فاجعه ای: تاثیر روانی و اجتماعی ساختارشکنی ساختمان در بعد از طوفان کاترینا نیواورلئان

This phenomenological study inquired into the psycho-social impact of building deconstruction in disaster response. Nine building owners participating in a Mercy Corps’ sponsored building deconstruction program in Post-Katrina New Orleans (2005–2008), engaged in extensive interviews about their experience. The core phenomenon they shared was empowerment arising from a synthesis of positive social interaction and material discovery. Dedicated, local, Mercy Corps trained contractors brought immediate relief to these distressed participants by facilitating “a dignified end” to their buildings and by proxy to the lives they held before the catastrophe. Deconstruction allowed participants to reclaim wealth that would have been scrapped for landfill waste by federal mandate. Participants reported a sudden psychological shift from despair to enthusiasm as they regained control of their property and then discovered value out of the ruined buildings. Data indicated that merely possessing reclaimed material did not explain the psychological transformation. Four of nine informants (including impoverished individuals) experienced psychological transformation by giving all of their reclaimed material away. The sharing of material was described as akin to “donating organs” giving life to their critically injured community. Data indicated the program also promoted more environmentally sustainable behavior. Previously, deconstruction has only been addressed in terms of technical, mechanical, economic, or environmental outcomes. This study adds a new component by seeing the human side of that technical process. This report is a companion study to another; Deconstructing Disaster; Economic and Environmental Impacts of Deconstruction in Post-Katrina New Orleans, which provides a quantitative analysis of material salvage from the Mercy Corps program.

I’m able to give to another and give to another of something that is of some value that will have a life, please forgive me, a resurrection. RDW This study is about people in urban neighborhoods having undergone the largest natural disaster in US history. Although they escaped with only their lives, they managed to return to their homes and find value out of the ruins by defying traditional disaster remediation processes in favor of deconstruction, an avant-garde technique for economic and environmental protection. Presently, the most common response to disaster in urban areas is for massive machine demolition of buildings which are subsequently broken into small pieces and stacked into landfills for eternity. By contrast, the approach of deconstruction calls for the hand dismantling of buildings to extract maximum salvage. Through deconstruction, building material is redirected out of the waste stream and back into the marketplace for reuse (usually through low-cost, non-profit building material stores). After the Gulf Coast storms of 2005, development professionals typically viewed the area as a waste land with nearly $100 billion in damaged structures, including severe or total destruction of 275,000 homes (Service Assessment Hurricane Katrina August 23–31, 2005, 2006). The US Government responded by ordering heavy machinery to demolish buildings damaged beyond 51% of their fair market value (Protocols for Estimating Replacement Housing Costs, 2007). There were no alternatives. Periodically, these demolitions happened without prior notice to the building owner (Nossiter, 2006) and even inadvertently included the demolition of houses undergoing renovation (Denhart, 2006). This left many homeowners, especially impoverished ones whose sum wealth resided in the broken structure, living in a state of anxiety wondering if their home might be next. Mercy Corps, an international non-profit, humanitarian relief and development agency, implemented a deconstruction program in New Orleans immediately after the hurricanes of 2005 to offer building owners an alternative to demolition. In this program, low-income property owners were able to retake control of their property and salvage considerable value from their homes. The purpose of this paper is to offer disaster response agencies, government officials, planners, and development professionals a glimpse of deconstruction as a grass roots tool for conscientious redevelopment in disaster.

‘‘I appreciate it.... From my heart I appreciate it. I so down and knocked out. I appreciate somebody come and offer me, to help me. You hear me? Because, I carried the load” (SB, F, L 190). This study demonstrated that, at least for one disaster stricken city, deconstruction has powerful emotional and psychological benefits. Previously, deconstruction has only been addressed in terms of technical, mechanical, economic, or environmental outcomes. This study adds a new component by seeing the human side of that technical process. The Mercy Corps program in New Orleans was significant, transformative, and empowering for the participants. It also proved in step with the United Nations Millennium Goal toward reducing poverty (by permitting poor homeowners to maintain wealth from their property), as well as the goal of enhancing environmental health by reducing CO2 contributions (see companion study). Perhaps the single most important finding in this is the realization that the destroyed remains of a home are far more than industrial garbage for a landfill. But likewise they are more than just a pile of deconstructed materials for resale. The unfastening pieces of a home, whether blighted or damaged, barely standing or fully collapsed, hold meaning. They embody the lives, history, and culture of individuals and their surrounding community. Building removal does not have to add trauma to a neighborhood. It can act to facilitate emotional recovery through dignity, respect and empowerment. The approach to the pile on the ground makes all the difference.