Designing culturally responsive built environments in post disaster contexts: Tsunami affected fishing settlements in Tamilnadu, India

The focus of creating built environments without recognizing what is appropriate to a particular settlement is a common and frequent failure in many post disaster development projects. This paper has been developed to address the issues related to culture-space dynamics in post tsunami recovery process. Basing on the primary evidences from two fishing villages in Tamilnadu, Southern India, this paper develops key directions for designing culturally responsive and resilient settlements in post disaster contexts in specific to Tamil fishing settlements. This study concludes by highlighting the importance of ‘connectivity’ as a construct of cultural continuity that links approaches for designing built environments with a socio-spatial understanding of traditional settlements in post disaster reconstruction process. Such suggestions can eventually inform the theory and practice about the methodological ways to develop further guidance for designers in the long run. & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.