ABSTRACT
As detailed by Kennedy et al. (2008), “build back better” was used to imply the need to link humanitarian relief and post-disaster reconstruction with longer-term disaster mitigation and vulnerability reduction efforts in order to ensure that reconstruction would not lead to conditions which could result in a similar disaster recurring. Establishing this link
is particularly challenging regarding post-disaster settlement and shelter (e.g. Cuny, 1983; Shelterproject, 2003). The preferred principles to adopt have been known for some time, because after Turner’s (1972: 148) “housing as a verb”, Davis (1978: 33) proposed that ‘shelter must be considered as a process, not as an object’. Especially for “shelter after disaster” (the title of Davis, 1978), shelter is not the structure only, such as a particular type of tent or house, but is an ongoing and interconnected series of tasks or actions which fulfil the needs of (from Kennedy et al., 2008):
(i) Physical and psychological health including protection from the elements and a feeling of home and community.
