Designing for resilience: Housing for fishermen community at mandarmani, West Bengal

Abstract

Climate change – the rise in global temperatures has caused climate volatility and an increase in water levels, directly impacting the coastal communities because of their geographical exposure. According the United Nations, the most vulnerable are the communities belonging to the lower strata of the society, in the coastal regions of the developing nations, due to the lack of proper housing, infrastructure, access to climate related information and their dependency on climate sensitive livelihoods like fishing and tourism. This necessitates external intervention for building resilience to natural disasters in the community. The fishermen community at Mandarmani is one such community. Mandarmani, is a coastal village in South Bengal, in the East Midnapore district. Lying within the Very High-Risk Zone for cyclones along the coast of Bay of Bengal, the community faces a repetitive cycle of destruction frequently. At the same time, a fall in marine productivity and uncertainty has disrupted their economy. The project focusses on building disaster preparedness within the existing community fabric in the fishermen village, with focus on economic diversification, resilient housing, infrastructure, and community spaces. On May 20, 2020, the super cyclone Amphan, struck the coast of South Bengal, making landfall at 75km from Mandarmani. The village, consisting majorly of kuccha structures, faced a major blow as most of the structures decimated, rendering the villagers homeless. Occurring at a time when coronavirus had brought lives to a standstill, the fishing economy was already in a stressful condition. Moreover, the social distancing protocols in the cyclone shelters allowed them to be occupied at fifty percent capacity, causing the others to seek shelter in other temporary structures. Hence, disaster recovery and social distancing were added to the layers of preparedness in the design to enhance resilience of the community. The concepts of vulnerability and resilience with respect to communities and disaster risk reduction were studied. The vulnerabilities on the proposed site were understood. As one of the oldest communities in India, the fishermen community exhibits an advanced understanding of the natural forces and has adapted to their natural environment through thousands of years of experience. However, due to the increased frequency and intensity of the cyclones, the buffer time required for the individuals to recover from the damage and return to functioning had decreased. The fall in economic capacities had added to the ineffectiveness of their recovery. Hence, traditional knowledge system embedded in the community must be respected while planning for interventions. Continuity – the link between the past and the present plays a significant role in coping with post disaster trauma. Thus, keeping traditions and familiarity alive was of utmost importance while conceptualizing the design. To improve the standard of life and cater to the aspirations of the people, infrastructure and shared spaces were incorporated. Economic diversification was planned for to act as a buffer to counteract the fall in economic conditions. The use of local materials available on the site while incorporating technological upgradations was done to allow a flow of revenue, at the same time, live up to the yearning for a pucca house – a symbol of pride and upliftment within rural communities of Bengal. Yet, the spirit of the place needed to be kept intact for the community to acclimatize with the built environments. Minimal intervention in settlement pattern ensured similarity with existing practices in the community and kept the socio-economic networks in the community alive – “a living society in all its complexity” (Fathy, 1973)