KATO.NI.MANA (Box of knowlege): Building cyclone resistent rural Fijian communities through social, environmental, and sustainable architectural responses
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Other Title
Authors
Prasad, Shivneel Sundip
Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)
Degree
Master of Architecture (Professional)
Grantor
Unitec Institute of Technology
Date
2021
Supervisors
Bradbury, Matthew
Murphy, Chris
Murphy, Chris
Type
Masters Thesis
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
Viti Levu (Fiji)
Fiji
rural communities
architecture of resilience
disasters
sustainable architecture
indigenous architecture
Fijian architecture
Pasifika
Fiji
rural communities
architecture of resilience
disasters
sustainable architecture
indigenous architecture
Fijian architecture
Pasifika
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Prasad, S. S. (2021). KATO.NI.MANA (Box of knowlege): Building cyclone resistent rural Fijian communities through social, environmental, and sustainable architectural responses. (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional)). Unitec Institute of Technology, New Zealand. https://hdl.handle.net/10652/5747
Abstract
RESEARCH QUESTION
How can rural Fijian communities create a resilient and sustainable environment?
ABSTRACT
The traditional response to cyclone resilience has generally focused on construction techniques and materials used for building. Notably, from the current literature reviews, resilience is dependent on the effectiveness of structures. However, for a developing Pacific Island country such as Fiji, structures destroyed by cyclones are often replaced with houses with similar limitations due to economic constraints. Therefore, understanding the contextual situation is essential to identify sustainable and resilient architectural solutions, primarily when the architectural identity of Fijian communities reflects its social and cultural fabric.
The initial research question focused on developing cyclone resilient solutions for the rural communities in Fiji in parallel with the earlier precedent reviews and discussions. However, as the research progressed, several other problems were identified that expanded the term "resilience" in this research project to the broader community. Evidently, the analysis of the Fijian social structure in rural communities identified that solutions to resilience could not be limited to structures but could rather be achieved through building a holistic, resilient community. Therefore, the research deepened its investigation to analyse the current rural Fijian communities' social, environmental, and traditional contexts for a holistic architecture response to achieve resilience. One of the earlier issues identified in the research project was the loss of traditional architectural identity in rural Fijian communities.
Therefore, the core of this research project focuses on the traditional village layout of indigenous Fijians to identify sustainable architectural solutions for Fiji's cyclone-prone environment. The research argues that a sustainable disaster response ‒ which we define as the ability to withstand and recover from a disaster ‒ is embedded in traditional village layouts. This research examines several villages to identify building patterns that mainly support resilience to disasters in rural communities and explores the potential of traditional housing patterns in the present day as an alternative to enhance the capacity to cope with natural disasters for communities across the Pacific Island countries.
SITE: Navala, located in the highlands of Ba Province in northern-central Viti Levu.
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