Meches House: the importance on choosing the right beneficiary on a post disaster alternative construction

Abstract

More than a year ago, Ecuador suffered a 7.8 Mw Earthquake that was devastating, the automatic response was to rush to the affected areas and rebuild. Meche´s House is an alternative: the crisis as an opportunity to experiment and consolidate popular construction systems based on an endogenous and holistic approach. This study evaluates two different methodologies (Mutualista Pichincha´s Casa Lista and Meche´s House) of the selection process for the beneficiaries on a reconstruction post-disaster building program contrasting each case and its needs by analyzing its approaches to the reconstruction procedures: one automatic, non-reflexive and product-based, and one analytic and process-based. Founded on experience and how different processes need different beneficiaries this study will raise some questions about the effectiveness, pros, cons, and perspectives of different approaches to make the correct choice of beneficiary for the reconstruction process after a natural disaster.