Following the 2004 Tsunami disaster, the Prajnopaya Foundation has started the construction of over 1000 houses in Sri Lanka. Prototypes of a 400 sq.ft. house and 1,000 sq.ft. community center have been developed. The aim of this project is to investigate the development of technological strategies that could guarantee future safety at lower cost. In particular, the focus is on digital and building technologies. Structural guidelines extracted from the analysis of surviving structures and the implementation of an early warning system using cell phones could provide a more effective solution to relocation – promoting a less hasty, more sensible recovery of the disaster-torn areas. According to a simulation by Buro Happold engineers, the final high-tech design/low-tech construction should be over five times more resistant than existing ones in the case of a tsunami.
