Mapping China: Urbanisation - 7 Urban Disasters and Crisis Management: Post-Disaster Reconstructions

The years following the heart-breaking Wenchuan earthquake featured a burst of infrastructure reconstruction in and around the disaster-affected area. Planners, architects, engineers and volunteers were all involved in the reconstruction. The issue of building-quality management that had been revealed by the earthquake damage received lots of attention and criticism. The post-disaster reconstruction became a period of restructuring the building industry.

This gave light to new building technologies and project management practices, one of which is the prefab light-weight building system developed by Professor Zhu Jingxiang from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The merits of the system include easy assemblage, less environmental disturbance, centralised quality control, replaceable building components, high thermal performance and a lower risk of damages. Three schools were built in the disaster-affected area applying Zhu’s new technique. The success of these projects paved the way towards wider application of this building system. So far, Zhu has built eco work-stations and schools in places with very limited accessibility for construction crews, as well as temporary structures for which mobility and flexibility is in high demand.

In post-disaster recovery, physical reconstruction is always easier than social rehabilitation. The victims, traumatised by losing family members and witnessing the fatal destruction of their neighbourhoods, sometimes wouldn’t recover from their suffering for years after resettlement. The rebounding of a neighbourhood or community is a lengthy process.