Resilient Design in Natural Disaster Mitigation

Natural disasters are a persistent global challenge, impacting millions of people annually across every region of the world (NASA, 2024). While these disasters cannot be prevented, designers play a critical role in developing strategies to maintain safety and health during these events. To create resilient, flexible designs applicable across contexts, designers should employ diverse practices, including theoretical frameworks. Design theories outline functional principles, elements, and aesthetic considerations of every interior design project. Understanding how people respond psychologically and physically to a space helps designers grasp its spatial, social, and systemic functions. Designers apply various philosophies, such as biophilic design, resilient and adaptive strategies, or universal design principles, to achieve this understanding. This is crucial when designing resilient solutions in natural disaster mitigation, as each climate and population has unique needs. Design cannot be perfect for everyone, as our world is full of rich and diverse cultures, climates, and populations. However, designers can strive to make spaces as universally usable as possible. Understanding these challenges is essential for creating spaces that are functional and adaptable under extreme weather conditions. The concepts and interpretations of design are ever-changing, evolving as designers move beyond self-imposed limitations toward deeper design thinking (Buchanan, 1992). This approach enables innovative practices that save lives and create resilient buildings during natural disasters. This paper uses the Ten Questions framework to explore natural disaster mitigation within the built environment, examining how diverse values, boundaries, lived experiences, sensory and ethical considerations, materials, ecological systems, and a case study reveal the complexity of designing with this ever-persistent problem.