Post Disaster Relief Camp, Lagos Mitigation of Natural and Manmade Disaster Through Architecture

Disaster relief shelters play a vital role in Large-scale disaster and are an important part of disaster response and recovery. Shelters are used to provide private and secure place for people to live who have left or lost their usual accommodations as a result of some form of disaster. The principal aim of this research work is to evaluate post-disaster relief camp design and management practices in selected areas in Lagos. It also examines the extent to which environmental, economic, technical, and socio-cultural criteria affect the provision and performance of DR shelters, and how such factors might be taken into account in the decision-making and design processes of such shelters. To achieve this, well-structured questionnaires were sent out to users and occupants of commercial buildings in Ikeja, Lagos State. Disaster relief shelters not only provide immediate and short-term shelter for the victim of a disaster, but they also help them to recover from the trauma of disaster as well as provide a base to start the process of rehabilitation. A review of the literature, case studies, guidance, and reports relating to the design of DR shelters indicates that their provision and performance are not currently as effective as they could be. A lack of adequate consideration with regard to climate conditions, locally available materials and skills, cultural and social issues, delays, cost constraints, and poor location selection for DR shelters have each been identified as source of poor performance contributing to an unacceptable standard of living. Moreover, there seems to be a lack of sufficient consideration with regard to the design of Disaster Relief camps for future storage and re-use.