Abstract

Although inhabitants are at the core of architecture and associated practices, there seem to be misalignments between architectural outcomes and user expectations, as seen in user-initiated changes to resettlement projects. This phenomenon is quite pronounced in rehousing provided to the displaced people in the aftermath of disasters, particularly among the underserved groups who have already been denied equitable access to decision-making. As found in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami rehousing projects in coastal Sri Lanka, this study explores a few mismatched expectations manifested in the rehousing realities by examining user-initiated changes made in housing provided to them.