Planning Goals and Urban Realities: Post‐Disaster Reconstruction in a Third World City

Spontaneous urban growth frequently occurs in the absence of, or in spite of, urban planning. Following a disaster, should a city be rebuilt on the model of the pre‐disaster city, or should time be invested to design and construct a "better" city? Divergent images of the urban environment result from class origins, ethnicity, and other differentiating factors between planners and recipients, as well as among the recipient population in general. Tracing both the planning process and the reconstruction of the city of Yungay, Peru, over 13‐year period, this study concludes that the new city reflects the traditional patterns of social stratification more than it manifests any intended innovative urban design, [planning, disaster, reconstruction, urban design]