Tasked with researching the long-term resilience of a resettlement community, the following works are extract from a report we produced and provided to our partner organisation, Habitat for Humanity Philippines. Due to the sensitive nature of the data, public access to this report is not possible, though pertinently its architectural proposals can be made available here. I express gratitude to the New Colombo Plan scheme which sponsored this field school, and all those within the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre who organised and made this subject possible.

The following passage is the preface abstract from the report:

This report evaluates the success of Habitat for Humanity’s Kawayanville resettlement in New Kawayan, Eastern Visayas, Philippines, following Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan). We insinuate that evaluating this success requires measuring the holistic resilience of the resettlement, which is measured on economic, social and physical scales. There were challenges with economic certainty within households, with survey respondents indicating difficulty in maintaining links to previous forms of livelihood or commuting to work. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews, alongside survey data, indicate broad social cohesion and pakikisama within the resettlement, with most survey respondents indicating they interact with their neighbours. Lastly, the modular housing designed and engineered by the NGO was perceived to be resistant and sturdy, with survey respondents believing they would feel safe. A significant proportion of respondents however also modified their homes, finding the initial design and programming of the houses to be inadequate for the needs of their household. The report makes a number of recommendations in terms of design and interorganisational coordination, which can be used as a point of reference for future resettlement development in Kawayanville or elsewhere.