Architects for Peace > arch-peace war + reconstruction  »   One architect's Tsunami experience

Architect Sharukh Mistry found himself in the Tsunami zone in India when he was on holiday. He has returned with his compnay and has been helping to build 800 houses for the SOS Kinderdorf-Children’s Village, part of the international charity building homes mainly for children without parental guardians.

Mistry underlines in the interview that their process was to encourage community participation, and to act on community ideas even when they disagreed.

"People here are very traditional thinking. We, however, found thatched, matted houses worked out to be more costly. We tried convincing them to use alternative material. We promised them that alternative material houses would be much better than concrete ones.

“But after much discussion, each one in the community came up to us and said, ‘Can you please give us concrete houses?’ So we have built concrete houses for the village.”

GULF TIMES 18.12.05
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