Elizabeth Hausler

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2004

Elizabeth Hausler

Build Change

http://www.buildchange.org

San Francisco, California, United States

Housing

The Bold Idea:

Designing and building earthquake-resistant housing to reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses caused by housing collapses due to earthquakes in developing countries.

Most of the 26,000 deaths that resulted from the December 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran were caused by collapse of unreinforced masonry and mud brick homes. A follow-up study of the 2001 Bhuj, India, earthquake showed that less than 40 percent of the structures built by skilled masons during the height of reconstruction had any earthquake-resistant features. In India alone, 85 percent of houses are made of adobe or unreinforced masonry. Despite massive efforts by NGOs and funding agencies to train and permanently upgrade the skills of local masons, the prescribed earthquake-resistant building technologies are too expensive to be used after emergency funding ceases. As a result, new houses are just as likely to be as vulnerable as those that collapsed during the earthquake.

Build Change is an international non-profit social enterprise based in San Francisco, CA with programs in Aceh and West Sumatra, Indonesia. It designs and trains builders to build earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries. Working with international agencies and local engineers, architects, builders and homeowners, Build Change promotes and builds with low-cost, earthquake resistant construction methods that will continue to be used once it leaves the village. It leaves in place a permanent change in construction practice.

Biography:

Dr. Elizabeth Hausler, the founder of Build Change, was named one of the world’s “Best Emerging Social Entrepreneurs” in 2004 by Echoing Green for her plan to promote and implement affordable, disaster-resistant housing construction in less developed countries. She is a 2006 Draper Richards fellow and was a Fulbright Scholar to India in 2002 – 2003. Dr. Hausler has a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a skilled brick, block and stone mason and has lectured on sustainable, disaster-resistant construction in five countries. On 10 March 2006, Elizabeth was featured by the US-based evening news program abcNEWS World News Tonight as Person of the Week for her work rebuilding houses in Aceh.


In an interview with Echoing Green, Elizabeth talks about launching Build Change and her hopes for the future.

Moment of Obligation: When and why did you decide to start your organization?
The sheer number of deaths in the January 2001 Bhuj, India earthquake startled me into action. In 2003, I spent 8 months in the Bhuj area on a Fulbright fellowship studying and assisting with the post-earthquake reconstruction. Although many earthquake-resistant houses have now been built, it remains to be seen whether or not houses with the prescribed earthquake-resistant elements, which are costly and technically challenging, will continue to be built in the absence of technical and financial assistance. If I had any doubts about starting an organization to promote and implement cost-effective building technologies for earthquake-resistant housing in developing countries, they completely vanished with the catastrophic earthquake in Bam, Iran last December.

Who do you look up to and why?
My father, a brick mason extraordinaire and much more. He is the kind of person who works extremely hard and never leaves a mistake uncorrected.

Roger Bonner, another very experienced builder of low- cost houses, schools and health care facilities in Africa and India, who continues to work in this field despite going blind.

Martin Fisher and Nick Moon, who have used brilliant engineering, private sector manufacturing and retail to create one of the most cost-effective and sustainable models for permanently increasing the incomes of poor, but entrepreneurial, Africans.

A snapshot in ten years: What is your dream of what's happening? What impact has your organization had?
In ten years, people in seismically active areas of India, Iran and other less developed Asian countries will be building earthquake-resistant houses using their own funds and skills. My organization will have worked with them to (1) identify the technology and building materials that are appropriate to their location, lifestyle and budget, and (2) train local artisans to incorporate earthquake resistance into the construction.

What's in your CD player right now?
The Thrills

What are a few book recommendations (pleasure, work and anything in between)?
It’s been tough to find time to read during this current trip to Iran and India. I read The Economist from cover-to-cover on a plane yesterday. My last read for pleasure was The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.

What websites do you go to often (work and personal)?
I’ve been trolling the internet for a single resource on low-cost, earthquake-resistant housing construction practices and lessons learned from post-disaster reconstructions. It does not exist (yet).

Quick piece of advice for people starting social change organizations:
Find a way to monitor the long-term changes caused by your organization, even if the monitoring falls outside your budget and timeframe. So many organizations do capacity building and training without ever knowing if they have created real, lasting change.