About | Architectural Recovery Team

About us

Empowering earthquake-affected communities through collaborative innovation aiming to provide safe and sustainable homes.

The foundation Architectural Recovery Team (ART) was founded at the Delft University of Technology and started as a voluntary student initiative, focussing on the architectural recovery of impacted areas after earthquake disasters. Our organisation aims to empower earthquake-affected communities through collaborative innovation and providing safe and sustainable housing solutions.

The Architectural Recovery Team is diverse, working with professors, architects, civil engineers and students from different disciplines. The aim of the Architectural Recovery Team is also to connect knowledge from different universities, and institutions.

Although the foundation focusses on the recovery of Turkiye, the Architectural Recovery Team also helps other teams get started after natural disasters all across the world. These teams work on various projects and approaches, respecting political and cultural aspects. More information about the start of other teams can be found under “project”.

Our Mission

Everyone has a fundamental human right to housing, which ensures access to a safe, secure, habitable, and affordable home – UN Habitat

Our mission is to support reconstruction and come up with preventive measures in areas affected by significant earthquakes and to carry out whatever is related or may be conducive to this.

Through collaboration with experts from different fields, including students from the TU Delft, we aim to co-create sustainable and affordable modular designs that prioritise local materials and cultural considerations. Our innovative and collaborative approach, supported by various professionals and specialists, ensures our plans are realistic and practical. We analyse initiated designs, build a network, and work towards a prototype.

After testing the prototypes and contacting institutes that could help us realise the design, we start the building process. Our approach is from an architectural engineering perspective, considering each crisis site’s unique geographical, political, cultural, and social aspects. Our ultimate goal is to provide solutions for long-term buildings that can withstand extreme situations, significantly impacting the lives of those affected by natural disasters.

How we started

“As architecture students, we had to do something to help get people a home again” – Meriç Kessaf

After witnessing the devastating effects of natural disasters, the founders of the Architectural Recovery Team, Meric Kessaf, Leyla van der Waarde and Meriam Sehimi, were inspired to take action. Their shared passion for humanitarian architecture led them to create an initiative dedicated to finding urgent solutions for long-term humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of natural disasters.

To combine our knowledge of humanitarian architecture, the architectural recovery team, at that time called the Syrian Turkish Architectural Recovery Team (START), organised a workshop week. The week was a start to kick off the initiative, where students, experts, and professors worked together to create possible solutions. The workshop featured various lectures on different topics, and the interdisciplinary groups created concept designs. The workshop concluded with twelve impressive designs with multiple approaches currently being analysed and developed further. ART is also building connections with local stakeholders to obtain support for the initiative. Through its innovative and collaborative approach, ART significantly impacts the lives of those affected by natural disasters.

By combining architectural techniques and knowledge from various fields, ART aims to create practical and realistic solutions for those impacted by natural disasters. Over the last few months, the group has grown to many volunteers. including architectural engineering. earth sciences, psychology, civil engineering, and more experts. ART takes a collaborative approach, leveraging the knowledge and expertise of its members across different fields.