Climate change and disaster resilience architecture hope
JAMAICANS ACROSS the board welcome development on the built environment. However, development should be nonpartisan, belonging to political leaders on both sides of the Houses of Parliament, owned by government workers at both central and local levels, and every citizen across Jamaica. This brings respect for people.
The Jamaica national anthem reinforces this , “…teach us true respect for all, stir response to duty’s call, strengthen us the weak to cherish, give us vision lest we perish…”.
Even before the United Nations set out their 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, “…Vision 2030 Jamaica is geared towards engaging all Jamaicans and development partners in the process to achieve and benefit from sustainable and inclusive development…”. When citizens feel ownership of the development process, they sustain it in fulfilment of Vision 2030 for “…Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business…”.
Yet, Singapore continues to be referenced to as a model for Jamaica’s development although Singapore is about 15 times smaller, approximately 6.54 per cent the size of Jamaica, with about 3.4 million more people living there versus nearly 2.8 million in Jamaica. Martin Henry in his article in The Gleaner August 4, 2013 advised, “…We are not going to become a Singapore 2. But surely we can use the next few years to firmly take several Singaporean steps compatible with our culture and values to create a richer, more peaceful and more equitable society…”.
Let us put into practice first what Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew said: “…A nation is great not by its size alone. It is the will, the cohesion, the stamina, the discipline of its people and the quality of their leaders which ensure it an honourable place in history…”
Recently, Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness lead at two key gatherings, from which we can hope to move forward the Jamaica Vision 2030 in the new year 2022, with inclusion of all citizens.
First, in a forum hosted the VII Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean (RP21). Dialogue took place between governments, civil society, private sector, science and technology community, UN agencies, development banks and others. The RP21 theme was ‘Building Resilient Economies in the Americas and the Caribbean’.
Disaster comes in so many forms, natural and manmade. What should be an architect’s response? “…I feel, however, that we architects have a special duty and mission ... (to contribute) to the socio-cultural development of architecture and urban planning...,” states Kenzo Tange, (1913-2005) winner of the 1987 Pritzker Architecture Prize who was one of Japan’s most honoured architects in charge of the reconstruction of Hiroshima after the World War II bombing of that city.
ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS
As a small island, Jamaica has had many natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, floods, fires, etc. Architectural solutions have evolved over the years to teach the world how to mitigate some of these negative effects. Let us implement these traditional architectural good practices as solutions moving forward from RP21. The following seven are themes extracted from the RP21 conference and I have elaborated beside each practical architectural solution.
(1) Resilience-building challenge for the next decades: Start at the drawing board/computer to respect the Jamaica socio-cultural environment of tropical hot, humid climate. Design interior and exterior spaces for ‘passive’ cooling, providing overhead shade from the heat of the sun and allowing adequate natural breezes for comfort against high humidity.
(2) Building back, better and greener, leaving no one behind: Integrate traditional hurricane architectural practices like jalousies and louvre windows; protect building structures with verandahs; plant and leave trees on the landscape because they act as hurricane wind-breakers to shield buildings.
(3) Strengthen community resilience: Allow wide openings across rooms for cross ventilation with a higher vented roof to release hot putrid air from returning into the lower human zones, especially on public buildings such as health facilities and schools used as emergency shelters.
(4) Lessons from COVID19: Permit urban planning of cities to prevent clustered zones avoiding rapid spread of diseases; ventilate naturally avoiding interior re-circulated artificial air; return to ample indoor/outdoor (rooms/ gardens) integrated spaces for physical distancing.
(5) Resilience of infrastructure: Design permeable fencing to prevent wind eddies and allow free-flow water movement; mix individual infrastructure along with central systems for sewerage and water systems.
(6) Integrating risk and hazard information in public and private investment: Prevent wide-roof overhangs; use hurricane straps; reinforce vertically and horizontally concrete walls and columns.
(7) Understanding systemic risk and promoting a risk-informed, people-centred sustainable development: Return to lowdensity neighbourhood planning across the Kingston Metropolitan Region; incentivise integrated landbased building and nature ecology developments.
Second, in the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, all countries are joining forces with civil society, companies and people on the frontline of climate change to inspire climate action. Here is the list of the COP26 four goals on how Jamaica should respond:
(a) Secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach – design and develop domestic architecture without need for air-conditioning units even on high-rises.
(b) Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats – curtail developments of roads and architecture inside established watershed areas and agricultural lands; assess scientifically these developments in hillside and forest environments.
(c) Mobilise finance and enable economic ‘inclusive growth’ that is distributed fairly across society and creates opportunities for all as a multidimensional concept encompassing different aspects of life.
(d) Work together to deliver – Permit private and public sector climate smart and DRR training for managers handling architecture development projects; collaborate between governments, businesses, civil society, with citizens.
Anthony Clayton offered further climate-change elaborations in The Gleaner of October 31 ‘Jamaica in 2050 – Part 2: Rethinking cities for the future’.
In my previous columns I have articulated on the road woes and the thin line between development and destruction. Issues of DRR with intensity heightened by climate change know no barriers and operate without boundaries. Is there any hope? Yes. Is there some direction? Yes. Are there solutions? Yes. Answers reside in integrated management and inclusive growth. Let us look forward with hope to 2022 and beyond to fulfil vision.