Seminar

Rebuilding with respect for the local

Start / Seminars / Rebuilding with Respect for the Local: the Role of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism in the Wake of Disasters

The Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit and the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU) hosted a seminar at Engelsberg Ironworks titled ‘Rebuilding with Respect for the Local: the Role of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism in the Wake of Disasters’.

INTBAU presented a one-day seminar that explored the role of traditional building, architecture, and urbanism in post-disaster contexts. The seminar examined key factors that reconstruction plans, recovery programmes, designers, and architects must prioritise, revisiting fundamental questions of whom they build for and what materials they use. The event provided insights into how to rebuild ‘better’ for the benefit, health, safety, and happiness of the communities affected.

The INTBAU network, which believes that traditional building, architecture, and urbanism can help create more resilient, adaptable, and harmonious communities, shared this mission throughout the seminar. The discussion was framed by recent global events that highlight the critical need for thoughtful reconstruction. The 21st century has witnessed numerous high-impact natural disasters, alongside human-inflicted destruction in cities such as Mosul, Raqqa, Lviv, and Odesa.

The seminar focused on events from the past two decades and complemented the earlier event, The Presence of Past Disasters, held at Downing College, Cambridge, on 20–21 May. That event explored historical precedents for rebuilding after catastrophic events, highlighting the resilience drawn from local materials, knowledge, and urban forms following disasters such as the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 in Japan and the 1926 Havana-Bermuda hurricane.

Through its global chapters and network of professionals, INTBAU invited a group of leading emergency planners, architects, strategists, and designers to present and discuss specific case studies. Each expert contributed insights from their field, exposing the various steps, aspects, and complexities involved in the reconstruction process. The seminar aimed to contribute to the ongoing development of tangible, long-term solutions for disaster recovery.

Participants

Giuseppe Amoruso

Professor of Drawing, Politecnico di Milano; INTBAU Italia

Alexander Lamont Bishop

Executive Director, INTBAU

Felicity Cain

Deputy Country Director and Head of Programmes, Turquoise Mountain Trust; INTBAU Afghanistan

Lidiia Chyzhevska

Architect / Urbanist, Drees & Sommer Integrated Urban Solutions; NSAU (National Union of Architects of Ukraine)

Marianne Cusato

Professor of the Practice & Director of Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture

Zeynep Gül Ünal

Restoration Architect, Yıldız Technical University Faculty of Architecture

Andrii Markovskyi

Professor of Architecture, National Academy of Arts of Ukraine; INTBAU Ukraine

Rohit Ranjitkar

Conservation Architect, Country Director, Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust

Frank Salmon

Associate Professor of History of Art & Director, Ax:son Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture, University of Cambridge

Katherine Watts

Specialist Conservation Architect, Associate, John McAslan + Partners