Active Architecture: A Form of Architecture that Adapts and Reacts to Challenges Accordingly and Actively, to Challenges Introduced and Forces Presented by Landslides

This research and design project proposes an active (resilient/adaptive) architecture to address the problem of natural disasters in developing communities. Natural disasters are the outcome created when mankind stops listening and learning to the surrounding environment. They are like any other natural hazard created by the environment, or human activity, the only difference is that natural disasters are destructive, claiming lives and damaging economies of affected areas. Research shows that it is more expensive for a community to recover from a disaster than it is to prevent it from happening in the first place or trying to prevent factors that might increase fatality. Therefore, rather than dealing with the after-effects, this project proposes solutions for the prevention of the adverse effects of natural disasters during the process of building rural communities \u2014 to better adapt for those events. Furthermore, research has shown that natural disasters have little power in taking lives and weakening economies alone. In his book, 2000 Years of Mayan Literature, Professor of Anthropology Dennis Tedlock, explains that many historical civilizations collapsed in part due to the inadequate relationship between society and the environmental conditions upon which societies rely. He compares this situation with our own, pointing to the parallel between the isolation of Easter Island, set apart by the vast wastes of the Pacific Ocean, with the isolation of the Earth in space. Tedlock's statement remains relevant in our time, yet mankind still turns a blind eye, and together with unprepared infrastructure, natural disasters can become exceedingly devastating and have long-term destructive effects. Active Architecture is the form of architecture that adapts to challenges and reacts to them accordingly and repeatedly, according to challenges introduces and forces present. Architecture plays a huge role in how natural disasters are dealt handled. In an interview with Arbuckle Industries, architect and humanitarian Shigeru Ban argues that natural disasters are manmade. He says that the earthquake alone cannot kill a person, the collapse of a building does. The actions of mankind are implicit in the massive destruction when a disaster occurs. Ban stresses it is the responsibility of an architect to make safe spaces. My proposal is that safe spaces can be created through active architecture. One example of active architecture is the civilization created by the people of Badjao, a 21st-century sea people. They are a relevant case study in my research because of their five (5) core technics in creating their active architecture: 1) architecture can be collective initiative, 2) adaptability goes beyond the building, 3) successful design can be born from fragility instead of stability, 4) listen to their environment, and 5) use surroundings and ecological impact as the defining qualities of their work in the long-term. In this paper, I will discuss the techniques of active architecture through a study of natural disasters in the form of landslides that occur often in my native country, Rwanda. Landslides, floods, droughts and heavy rain all routinely affect the country, however, landslides are the most urgent problem to be dealt with. In the final section of my paper, I use my research to develop an architectural solution to the issue of landslides in Rwanda and I project what the future of the country could look like if the proposal is implemented. The proposal describes a more active form of architecture that is responsive to the site and offers a resilient yet solid infrastructural solution to the problem of landslides.