The Architectural Recovery Team consists of three teams:
On 6 February 2023, a twin earthquake hit Southern Turkey, measuring Mw 7.8 and Mw 7.7, covering an area of ten provinces close to the size of the Netherlands. The catastrophe resulted in significant property damage and loss of life, and its lingering physical, psychological, and social effects still haunt communities today. While various aid and development initiatives support the recovery and restoration of urban centres, hardly any attention has been given to rural areas. Recognising this gap, as a group of TU Delft master architecture students, we founded the Architectural Recovery Team (ART) in February, 2023 to address the needs of these neglected areas and communities. In July 2023, we kickstarted the first design, a responsive and sustainable modular housing project to be implemented in the selected village Karsu in Hatay. With this first design, we aim to rehabilitate the natural and built environment together with the community by rebuilding homes and infrastructure to achieve long-term sustainability and resilience in the region.
Currently, the Architectural Recovery Team is developing the design for the prototype, an important component of our long-term housing strategy. To ensure the effectiveness of the design, it is imperative that we conduct testing. To be able to do this, we plan to construct a 1:1 scale prototype at the Delft University of Technology in December 2023. In early February, this prototype will be transported to Hatay, Türkiye, where it will be tested on-site, whilst the first family lives inside the house.