Paper short abstract:

'Imece' means collaboration among peasants and implies collectively accomplished tasks in the villages. The paper emphasises the importance of cultural and personal elements in housing arrangements and of empowering victims to participate in the planning and implementation of recovery projects.

Paper long abstract:

<b>Co-authors: Ýnci User, Betül Yarar</b></br>

Housing recovery programs after disasters involve great costs but may not always fully correspond to the needs of the beneficiaries. For most individuals and families the home has great psychological significance. Home loss and being forced to change one's neighborhood as a result of disasters may be almost equally stressful as the loss of relatives or friends.

If the beneficiaries of recovery project are enabled to participate in its planning and implementation, they may be expected to accept and enjoy its outcomes far more readily than otherwise. However, if the impact of a disaster is too large and if too many people remain homeless, large-scale projects are more likely to be adopted and there may not be sufficient time and resources to consider the varying needs and wishes of single individuals and households.

The two earthquakes that have taken place in 1999 in the Marmara Region of Turkey have constituted major disasters leading to the death of over 30 thousand people and necessitating huge reconstruction processes in a number of provinces in the region.This presantation is about a very special small scale housing recovery project that has been realized in three villages of the Duzce.

Duzce suffered great losses in the two earthquakes and the epicentre of the second(Richter Magnitude:7.2)was within the frontiers of Duzce.As part of the large field study concerning the situation of the province 5 years after the disaster, the housing project to be presented here was also studied. The project is titled 'Imece Evleri?Imece Houses'. In Turkish, imece means collaboration among peasants and implies collectively accomplished tasks in the traditional village economy.

The presentation will emphasize the importance of cultural and personal elements in housing arrangements and point to the necessity of empowering disaster victims to participate in the planning and implementation of recovery projects.