Gonzalo Lizarralde- PhD in Environmental Design
- Professor (Full) at Université de Montréal
Gonzalo Lizarralde
- PhD in Environmental Design
- Professor (Full) at Université de Montréal
About
184
Publications
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Introduction
Gonzalo’s work focuses on understanding project processes, risks, low-cost housing, and informality in urban settings. He is interested in the causes and consequences of rapid urban transformation triggered by natural disasters, climate change, socio-political conflicts, and economic instability. He is the holder of the Université de Montréal Fayolle-Magil Construction Research Chair in Architecture, the Built Environment and Sustainability. He is also the director of the IF Research Group (grif) and the Canadian Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Reconstruction Research Alliance (Oeuvre durable). He is a Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada.
Current institution
Publications
Publications (184)
Disasters are not natural. Natural events such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc. become disasters because of the fragile relations that exist between the natural, human and built environments. Sadly, major disasters will always occur in towns and cities in the developing world where resources are limited, people are vulnerable and needs are...
Participate in an international competition for a project in China, design a project for
Dubai, build a school in the favellas of Brazil. Those are some of the challenges that firms
in the fields of architecture, urban planning and construction must now face in a
globalizing construction sector. However, the international context of construction sh...
There is an increased interest among architects, urban specialists and design professionals to contribute to solve ‘the housing problem’ in developing countries. The Invisible Houses takes us on a journey through the slums and informal settlements of South Africa, India, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti and many other countries of the g...
Urban low cost housing markets in developing countries are often inefficient and subsidized programmes can add further market distortions. In the case of South Africa, one of the important causes of the inefficiency of the housing market (and one that is often ignored) is the fact that housing policies and construction practices systematically excl...
Natural cataclysms (earthquakes, hurricanes and so forth) become natural disasters when they coincide with vulnerabilities; unfortunately, informal settlements in developing countries are only too often highly vulnerable - a reality amply and unhappily confirmed by available statistics. In this context, reconstruction projects are sandwiched betwee...
Most studies and policy in disaster risk reduction have focused on either what people lack (their vulnerability or their capacities to deal with risk (their resilience). Few studies and decision-making processes have focused on the role of emotions in informal urban settings. However, the results of a four-year study including interviews, three int...
Offrant un éclairage stimulant sur les transformations en cours dans nos villes et les controverses qui les accompagnent, Gonzalo Lizarralde nous guide à travers la complexité des dilemmes contemporains. Dans un monde confronté aux répercussions des changements climatiques, à la dégradation écologique rapide et aux injustices sociales percutantes,...
Purpose
In this paper, we explore the impact of land management practices on post-disaster housing, to draw lessons from the case of reconstruction in Türkiye.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted two qualitative case studies of two reconstruction experiences following the 2020 Elazığ and İzmir earthquakes. We analyzed 70 articles, technical r...
Purpose
Disaster risk reduction is of prime importance in informal settlements in the Global South, where several forms of vulnerability coexist. Policy and official programmes, however, rarely respond to the needs and expectations of citizens and local leaders living in these settlements. Even though these agents constantly attempt to reduce risks...
Inclusive urbanization, especially in self-built urban contexts, can drive meaningful change to support safety, resilience, and sustainability. But it often depends on the success of partnerships and knowledge transfer among multiple stakeholders of diverse affiliations and disciplines and within and between communities and social groups. Today’s c...
In times of global warming, disaster risk reduction poses a great challenge for governments and organizations in the Global South. The challenge is even greater in informal settings: that is, in contexts where housing and economic activities emerge primarily from residents’ efforts. In slums, barrios, favelas, tugurios, comunas, and other low-incom...
Risk perception, a judgment of how risk is perceived individually and communicated scientifically, helps clarify local knowledge, know-how, and experience. However, community disaster preparedness and DRR planning have often overlooked community risk perception. This study investigates how risk perception at the community level influences and facil...
![Classification of legitimacy sources based on Scholte and Tallberg [41].](publication/371901533/figure/tbl1/AS:11431281170746269@1687882289137/Classification-of-legitimacy-sources-based-on-Scholte-and-Tallberg-41_Q320.jpg)
The Paris Agreement made net zero emissions a global target. In response, net zero carbon building standards have proliferated, making net zero a popular target for buildings. But to meaningfully contribute to global decarbonization efforts, net zero standards and the organizations who promote them, must be deemed legitimate. Given the building ind...
Rapport de projet de recherche-création sur l’opérationnalisation du concept des « biens communs » dans l’aménagement et le design urbain.
Un projet de la Chaire Fayolle-Magil Construction en collaboration avec la Ville de Laval.
Cette étude explore les avantages, les limites et les défis de l’opérationnalisation du concept de gouvernance des bie...
Purpose
Driven by the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, decision makers have been striving to reorientate policy debates towards the aspiration of achieving urban resilience and monitoring the effectiveness of adaptive measures through the implementation of standardised indicators. Consequently, there has been a rise of indica...
architecture, planning and design for
disaster reduction and reconstruction,
10th i-Rec student competition
BETWEEN TRADITION AND INNOVATION
What must change and what mustn't in the face of disasters and climate change?
in parallel with the 10th i-Rec int'l conference
Sendai, Japan, 2022
After a disaster partially destroyed the city of Salgar (Colombia) in 2015, a governance structure based on co-respon-sibility between public, private, and non-profit stakeholders was key in the reconstruction process. Three aspects of these alliances, identified from the theory, and their role in the construction of the common good are analyzed. Q...
Disaster prevention and the mitigation of climate change effects call for global action. Joint efforts are required among countries, economic sectors, and public and private stakeholders. Not surprisingly, international organizations, such as the United Nations agencies, propose policy frameworks aimed at worldwide influence. The 2015–2030 Sendai F...
Development studies highlight the importance of scaling good practices and their replicability and transferability to face global warming. But what happens when practices originate in informal urban contexts? Should they be replicated, amplified and formalized? We explore the opportunities and contradictions that emerge in scaling disaster risk red...
This chapter challenges the way in which the objective of “investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience” has been applied since 2015—particularly in the Global South. It ultimately argues that the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction fails to deal with the root causes of disasters. By adopting ambiguous language and empty jargon, and...
By virtue of its impact, budget, and number of participants, ADAPTO is one of the most ambitious recent research and implementation initiatives in the area of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate response in informal urban settings in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The project (also known as “Climate Change Adaptation in Informal Settings:...
Introduction available here: https://issuu.com/columbiaup/docs/unnatural_disasters_introduction
Storms, floods, fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, and other disasters seem not only more frequent but also closer to home. As the world faces this onslaught, we have placed our faith in “sustainable development,” which promises that we can surviv...
For decades, social scientists have attempted to reveal the real causes behind disasters. While some scholars have recently focused almost exclusively on people’s vulnerabilities, the majority recognize that disasters result from a combination of people’s choices and hazards. Agencies and government officials, on the other hand, have often downplay...
Previous studies have documented the negative impacts and unexpected secondary effects of post-disaster housing development. Here, we build on this tradition to explore how post-disaster urban planning and risk mitigation measures affect internal migrations after a major disaster. In the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami...
When the Syrian war erupted in 2011, the Lebanese government withdrew from managing the influx of Syrian refugees. Three years later, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers set new regulations for Syrians with the purpose of reducing access to territory and persuading refugees to leave the country. This article analyses the reasons for and the outcomes of...
From 2010 to 2015, Canaan was perhaps the urban settlement with the fastest exponential growth in the Western hemisphere. Technically, Canaan is not a city—at least not in the administrative sense of the term. Nor is it simply a slum on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Instead, it is a vast, new and almost entirely self-constructed post-disaster se...
Purpose
Few people living in informal settlements in the Global South spontaneously claim that they are “resilient” or “adapting” to disaster risk or climate change. Surely, they often overcome multiple challenges, including natural hazards exacerbated by climate change. Yet their actions are increasingly examined through the framework of resilienc...
Like other Caribbean countries, Cuba has adopted policies to relocate populations and prohibit (re)building in coastal zones at risk of climate change effects. Yet residents do not uniformly see such measures as welfare promoting and risk reducing, and may resist relocation, even in places where disaster planning is respected and effective. In such...
The moderator’s closing remarks in the 10th online debate Oeuvre durable - i-Rec.
Adaptation is still our best choice in the fight against climate change effects—but only if it is politically engaged, motivated by social justice, and aimed at reducing inequality and the root causes of vulnerability.
The project's temporality facing the ethical dilemmas of citizen participation - Urban development projects mobilize a complex network of stakeholders (PP) that intervene at several scales and decision-making levels of the project. These PPs represent different and sometimes divergent interests. Research on development actors has shown the emergenc...
For decades, urban growth in developing countries has been examined through a formal-informal dichotomy. Conceptions of the “informal” urban development have evolved: from a temporary phenomenon to be eradicated, to a solution to unmet housing and services demands, and to a recognition of interdependent practices that overlap with the “formal” ones...
Over the past ten years, both the frequency and intensity of water-related disasters have increased in South America, causing significant economic, material, and human losses. Small and medium-sized cities in the region are particularly vulnerable to landslides and sudden floods. Among the most vulnerable groups are women, who, in most cases, suffe...
Caribbean islands typically suffer from water scarcity. As populations grow, many of them simply do not have enough freshwater sources. In response, residents usually collect rainwater in their homes, a practice based on social structures and a water management (WM) role tacitly and historically assigned to women. Yet today, mainly rapid migration,...
architecture for disaster reduction and reconstruction
9th i-Rec student competition
IATROGENESIS Disrupting the status quo: Resisting disaster risk creation
in parallel with the 9th i-Rec international conference Gainesville, Florida, USA, 2019
It is often argued that integrated design (ID) is a powerful way to enhance collaboration in construction projects. This collaboration is seen as a way of improving innovation to create more sustainable buildings. Contrary to the traditional silo-type and linear design process, ID is based on upfront stakeholder involvement and a holistic approach...
To reduce a building's impact on the environment, governments and certification boards encourage the use of innovative and collaborative design processes such as Integrated Design (ID). ID proposes upfront, stakeholder-engagement and collective decision-making to improve life-cycle building performance. Although ID's potential is theoretically well...
Le secteur de la rénovation des bâtiments non résidentiels joue un rôle fondamental dans l’industrie de la construction au Québec. Ce secteur gagne en importance en matière d’impacts causés par l’industrie de la construction sur l’environnement, contribuant à des milliards de tonnes de déchets par année. Une dimension importante de la durabilité
d’...
Il existe souvent plusieurs écarts entre la performance
anticipée des bâtiments durables et leur performance
réelle post-construction. Il en va de même pour
les attentes du client versus les véritables impacts
des bâtiments dits « verts » sur les occupants.
Comment réduire ces écarts ? Comment savoir si
la conception du bâtiment conduit effectiveme...
Six years after the eruption of the Syrian conflict, Lebanon and Jordan adopted divergent policies in hosting over two million Syrian refugees. Whereas Jordan has allowed organized camps, Lebanon adopted a non-encampment policy, leading refugees to spread informally in almost 2000 locations, with only a few camps authorized. This study examines the...
Disaster management studies have demonstrated that housing reconstruction programs often lead to different levels of community recovery. Yet, insufficient knowledge still exists about how reconstruction policies and decisions produce diverse impacts among different social groups. The purpose of this paper is to explore why and how housing reconstru...
Isabelle Thomas and Gonzalo Lizarralde (from Oeuvre durable) discuss how to rebuild after disasters and how to prevent risk.
Cinq phénomènes connexes caractérisent aujourd'hui l'habitat dans la zone métropolitaine de Port-au-Prince (ZMPAP) : un étalement urbain accentué, un processus accéléré de bidonvilisation de la périphérie, une densification et dégradation rapides des quartiers centraux, une vulnérabilité significative face aux risques environnementaux, et un import...
Disaster management studies have demonstrated that housing reconstruction programs often contain conflicting objectives. Yet, insufficient knowledge still exists about how conflicts between objectives appear and escalate during the reconstruction process. The purpose of this article is to explain the causes and consequences of these conflicts and t...
architecture for disaster reduction
and reconstruction,
8th i-Rec student competition
People on the move: Housing, infrastructure and services in times of displacement
in parallel with the 8th i-Rec int'l conference
Toronto, July 1-2 2017
It is estimated that the building sector, and its significantly fragmented industry, is responsible for 25% of waste generation, 40% of energy consumption, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. Not surprisingly, increasing attention toward sustainability and the reduction of fragmentation has led building sector stakeholders to implement alternative...
Post-disaster housing reconstruction can potentially improve the living conditions of affected families and decrease their vulnerabilities. This chapter shows, however, that it can also deteriorate local livelihoods, social fabrics, governance structures, household economic conditions, and reduce infrastructure efficiency while increasing urban spr...
Extended abstract In the last few decades, researchers have extensively examined variables behind the successes or failures of housing recovery programs. Over time, a consensus has been reached regarding the frequent drawbacks of relocation policies. Empirical evidence confirms the disruptive impacts of relocation policies on survivors' livelihoods...
Several studies have revealed the difficulties often found in defining stakeholders’ roles in post-disaster reconstruction projects. Insufficient and ill-timed collaboration are typically identified as the principal source of problems. Borrowing the concept of Institutional Fragmentation (IF) from the field of project management, this paper examine...
Notwithstanding different definitions of and viewpoint on sustainability, the paradigm of sustainable development is producing a significant impact on the construction and housing sectors. Recent studies show that the building sector in Canada is responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Not surpisingly, p...
Project stakeholders in the building sector adopt different approaches to sustainability, based on diverse definitions and perceptions of what is to be considered “sustainable” and the means to achieve it. These differences create tensions, which in some cases lead to better interventions and, in other cases, to conflicts. It is therefore crucial t...
Theory-based studies claim that informal processes interfere with the formal mechanisms and structures of projects in the construction sector. These processes structure and transform multi-organizations. This four-year case study reveals empirical evidence about how processes effectively evolve over time and affect formal mechanisms and structures....
The paradigms of sustainability and resilience have had significant impacts on both research and practice in the built environment, attempting to frame ethical approaches with regards to the fragile relationships between the built, the natural and the social environments. Both paradigms adopt a systems approach to the understanding of complexity, h...
architecture for disaster reduction
and reconstruction,
7th i-Rec student competition
Addressing Different Forms of Vulnerability for Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Contexts
in parallel with the 7th i-Rec int'l conference
London, UK, July 6-8 2015
Design and urban development studies typically explore the challenges of-and opportunities for-spatial transformation in informal settlements. Yet, critical aspects of this transformation, such as adaptation and effective adaptive capacities are most often addressed through other bodies of knowledge, generally linked to climate change and resilienc...
Previous studies in the field of disaster management have found that housing reconstruction programs can facilitate the recovery of households, or make them even more vulnerable. Although it is believed that reconstruction policies should be aimed at reducing vulnerabilities and enhancing resilience, there is still insufficient knowledge about how...
There are more than 50 million refugees worldwide, a figure that has been significantly increased by the recent Syrian crisis. Having hosted thousands of Palestinian refugees sixty years ago, Lebanon, a neighboring country to Syria, recently received over one million Syrian refugees. It has thus become the nation with the largest percentage of refu...
While the paradigm of sustainable development has largely influenced architecture projects worldwide, Green Building Certifications (GBCs) have become the new (increasingly mandatory) standard of project performance. Numerous studies have concentrated on the influence of sustainable development (SD) in the final product: the building. However, more...
A stakeholder approach to innovation is concerned with people and organisations that make innovation emerge and with the views of all those who are affected. Because value is a perception developed among internal and external stakeholders, not an objective feature of an innovation, the key question is ‘who’ rather than ‘what’ creates value. Who per...
Through its capacity to evoke systemic adaptation before and after disasters, resilience has become a seductive theory in disaster management. Several studies have linked the concept with systems theory; however, they have been mostly based on theoretical models with limited empirical support. The study of the Cuban model of resilience sheds light...
Design professionals in the built environment have been criticised for their lack of innovation, notably when compared with other major industry sectors such as aerospace, technology and automobile. The fragmented nature of design is identified as a significant barrier to innovation and collaboration. Increasing attention toward sustainability, how...
Questions
Question (1)
For decades, scholars and think tanks have debated the effectiveness of aid in reducing poverty. In this debate, we will build on previous arguments about the effectiveness and value of aid, but focus on its role in disaster risk reduction and post-disaster reconstruction and recovery.
Scholars, think-tanks, celebrities, and politicians have claimed aid is crucial to prevent famines, diseases, and deaths. They argue that donors’ money can be used to solve basic problems in areas like sanitation, vaccination, education, housing, and infrastructure. Aid can also be used to fund monitoring activities and learn from interventions. More importantly, they contend that traditional markets alone cannot resolve housing and infrastructure deficits. They note that the poor are often stuck in feedback loops that economists call “poverty traps.” In other words, millions are poor precisely because they live in poverty. Slum dwellers, for instance, find it difficult to escape poverty because they pay proportionally more for services and infrastructure than wealthier citizens. Foreign aid is needed to break these vicious cycles and replace them with virtuous ones that make vulnerable people more resilient. For defenders, the real problem is lack of funds, not present mechanisms of aid. From their view, people use criticisms of aid merely as excuses to justify not donating money.
On the other hand, critics often find too much money is “wasted” on aid. For them, initiatives seldom produce positive long-term change and—in many cases—even create more damaging than desirable results. They contend that donors’ money is spent on band-aid solutions that rarely have long-term impacts. They argue that aid is largely controlled by political agendas, feeds on forms of neo-colonialism, focuses too much on technology transfer, creates dependency, and bypasses legitimate governments and authorities. They contend that aid is often based on centralized schemes produced by over-confident and idealistic decision-makers with little knowledge of what is needed “on the ground.” For them, aid is often driven by ideology, and lacks the performance incentives and accountability mechanisms found in competitive (and typically “more efficient”) markets.
For this debate, we have invited two internationally recognized experts in humanitarian assistance and interventions to defend each viewpoint.
Our panellists will present their most persuasive arguments over the next ten days, but the outcome of the debate rests in your hands. Don’t hesitate to vote immediately—you can always change your mind. Better yet, once you have cast your vote, add your voice to the debate and explain your decision.
Vote and participate here: https://oddebates.com/
