Resilient Rehabilitation of fishing community in Peda Jalaripeta, Visakhapatnam

Abstract

The project was proposed as a post-disaster rehabilitation of traditional fishing community of Peda Jalaripeta neighbourhood in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, after the super-cyclone HudHud damaged over 50% of the housing units in the area. Proposed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2016, after the Hud-Hud cyclone (2014), this project covers a total of 500 households. The project, which was initially proposed as a relocation project, was converted to an in-situ rehabilitation project, due to the demands of the beneficiary community that is tied to the site – the coast, for their livelihood. The literature study is based on one of the primary design requirements – cultural responsiveness of built environment in post-disaster contexts; a study of similar projects along the east coast of India, to identify the primary reasons for them being rejected or accepted by beneficiary communities, put forward considerations for designing resilient and culturally responsive built environments. Based on learnings from literature and cases studies, this thesis explores design possibilities for creating a resilient built environment, expanding into environmental, economic and social aspects of resilience and also addressing the site-specific issues of the project in the process. The design follows the concept of ‘couple systems’ which employs a network of spaces with dual functionality that operate differently in everyday life conditions and in emergency situations. Interconnected spaces starting from unit and block level to cluster and sub-settlement level, create these networks that operate differently under different disaster conditions. The site planning is based in provision of designated spaces for ancillary fishing activities and allied commerce identified on the site, in the cluster level open spaces, to allow division of settlement into various guilds or sects working together as a network to support the primary trade of fishing, while also providing alternate sources of living for the community. Limiting the expansion of settlement towards beach, need for reorganising densities to counter congestion, lack of resilient infrastructure and disaster preparedness, lack of fishing activity spaces, reduced value of fish due to lack of hygiene and unhygienic living conditions are the issues of the site and beneficiary community that have been addressed in through the design in this project.