3 Questions: Lawrence Vale on rebuilding Haiti
The human and economic toll of this month's earthquake in Haiti has yet to be fully measured, but it is clear that the country faces an enormous rebuilding task. Lawrence Vale, MIT's Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning, is an expert on the reconstruction of cities devastated by natural disasters or warfare; a 2005 book he co-edited on the subject, The Resilient City, explores how and why modern societies choose to rebuild ruined metropolises. MIT News asked Vale about Haiti's long-term prospects for renewal.Q. In The Resilient City, you write that throughout history, devastated cities have almost always "risen again like the mythic phoenix" and "are among humankind's most durable artifacts." What are the crucial first steps that could allow Haiti, and the Port-au-Prince area, to rebuild?A. Before 1800, it was more common for cities to be destroyed and abandoned, leaving the world with "lost cities" later to be...