blog
shahana dastidar
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
travel plans for july
Just applied for a visa to turkey and will be getting it this thursday. I hope to be flying out on the 16th or 17th next week. For those of you I haven't been in touch with, I was awarded a travel scholarship to conduct research for my master's dissertation. I'm studying housing and resettlement strategies in Istanbul. Turkey has frequent earthquakes and 1999 had two within a space of 3 months. Istanbul expects to be hit by another one sometime in the next 30-40 years and they're carrying out a lot of planning and strategy for future disaster response systems. This is what I will be studying.
My specific focus (as mentioned) is the housing solution and how strategy-planners envision the response of short-term relief housing and long-term permanent housing. The concept of 'Transition Housing' bridges both being an immediate shelter that can later transform into permanent dwelling. However, the housing/ settlement/ infrastructure responses need to follow standards for seismic movement. A housing settlement could be a very successful project where victims are happy to resettle - only to fail when the next quake hits!!
So far of course I've been so busy putting up this website, my dissertation work has sort of been pushed to the backburner. One would think a slow simmer there would have cooked it properly by now. Unfortunately analogies can only be stretched so far. The dissertation remains raw and inedible.
Not helping the cause are my other travel plans. I'm hoping to go to the seaside this weekend. Its going to be raining for sure, but if we wait for sun - we'll never do anything!!! If ever there was weather that was character building, this is it. Nearly a month without PROPER sun and time for us to look deep within ourselves and discover our inner umbrella.
I was also hoping to travel around the UK some more. Train tickets are cheap and I got this student railcard thing thats been used only once (to scotland, and that one trip was enough to recoup its cost!!). However I feel I should use it some more since I'm here. After all opportunities come and then go, deadlines exist forever.
My specific focus (as mentioned) is the housing solution and how strategy-planners envision the response of short-term relief housing and long-term permanent housing. The concept of 'Transition Housing' bridges both being an immediate shelter that can later transform into permanent dwelling. However, the housing/ settlement/ infrastructure responses need to follow standards for seismic movement. A housing settlement could be a very successful project where victims are happy to resettle - only to fail when the next quake hits!!
So far of course I've been so busy putting up this website, my dissertation work has sort of been pushed to the backburner. One would think a slow simmer there would have cooked it properly by now. Unfortunately analogies can only be stretched so far. The dissertation remains raw and inedible.
Not helping the cause are my other travel plans. I'm hoping to go to the seaside this weekend. Its going to be raining for sure, but if we wait for sun - we'll never do anything!!! If ever there was weather that was character building, this is it. Nearly a month without PROPER sun and time for us to look deep within ourselves and discover our inner umbrella.
I was also hoping to travel around the UK some more. Train tickets are cheap and I got this student railcard thing thats been used only once (to scotland, and that one trip was enough to recoup its cost!!). However I feel I should use it some more since I'm here. After all opportunities come and then go, deadlines exist forever.
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