News

Floods in Southeast Asia Result from Severe Failures in Urban Planning and Architecture

Between November 18 and 24, extreme rainfall hit Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, resulting so far in more than 300 confirmed deaths and thousands of displaced residents. The region was impacted by two meteorological systems—the tropical storm Senyar and cyclone Ditwah—combined with intensified monsoon activity. In Hat Yai (Thailand), 24-hour rainfall reached 335 mm, the highest in three centuries.

The scale of destruction, however, cannot be explained by rainfall intensity alone. A technical assessment revealed how urban, architectural, and infrastructure decisions directly worsened the impacts of the tragedy.

The role of construction and urban planning in amplifying the disaster

An analysis of the built environment in affected areas identified systemic failures that turned an extreme weather event into a large-scale urban disaster:

• Undersized or obstructed drainage systems: In Hat Yai, the Phuminat Damri canal (Ror 1), considered the backbone of local flood control, was silted and had lost its drainage capacity. This contributed to widespread flooding in central commercial and residential areas.

• Construction in areas with known topographic and hydrological risk: In Sri Lanka, 30% to 40% of the deaths occurred in zones mapped as “Red Areas,” unstable slopes with a history of landslides. The presence of illegal buildings worsened soil instability.

• Urban soil impermeabilization: Cities like Medan (Indonesia) underwent rapid urbanization in recent decades, leading to an almost complete loss of infiltration areas. The result was increased surface runoff and the collapse of the drainage network.

• Loss of climate-adapted architectural typologies: In several affected regions, traditional stilt houses were replaced by ground-level concrete homes, which are incompatible with flood-prone areas. This led to total material losses and direct structural risks.

Critical situations by country

Materials and construction techniques were also decisive

Beyond urban layout, the construction systems themselves contributed to the severity of the impacts:

• Extensive use of reinforced concrete over unstable soils accelerated urban subsidence in Medan, compromising foundations in flooded areas.

• Lack of resilience technologies (such as permeable pavements or deep drainage) prevented adequate runoff in critical zones.

• Low water-resistant materials, such as drywall and particleboard panels, were widely used even in regions with regular flooding, resulting in total losses after submersion.

The regional and geopolitical dimension of the issue

The case of the Golok River, on the Thailand–Malaysia border, illustrated the negative effects of unilateral infrastructure. The wall built by Thailand along its riverbank prevented natural water dispersion, redirecting the flow with greater intensity toward the Malaysian side, which lacked equivalent protection. This caused severe flooding in the city of Rantau Panjang. The incident revived discussions on the need for binational hydrological governance.

Final considerations

The investigation conducted by local and international experts indicates that most of the deaths and destruction were caused not only by the climatic event itself but by technical and political decisions accumulated over decades. These include:

• Neglect in the maintenance of canals and drainage systems;

• Disorganized urbanization and occupation of high-risk areas;

• Abandonment of architectural solutions adapted to local climatic conditions;

• Lack of integration among municipalities, states, and countries in territorial and hydrological planning.

The affected cities did not fail due to a simple lack of investment—they failed because of a design approach that disregards the region's hydrological realities.

Video

Micro-Apartments: When the Home Shrinks and Profit Grows

In major cities, a new type of housing is becoming increasingly common: micro-apartments. Units ranging from 18 to 35 m², often located in high-end areas and promoted with marketing that promises convenience, flexibility, and an “uncomplicated” urban lifestyle. But what is behind this phenomenon?

While buildings grow taller and technology enables ever more advanced construction, private space is shrinking. Housing—a fundamental human necessity—is being reduced to the bare minimum. And more than a lifestyle choice, this reveals a structural shift: the home is being treated as a commodity, not a right.

The logic is clear: the smaller the unit, the higher the profit per square meter. With expensive land and rising construction costs, developers have found in compact apartments a profitable equation, often supported by narratives about urban mobility, minimalism, and sustainability.

But how far does this narrative hold up?

This trend raises fundamental questions about quality of life, mental health, urban equity, and the true role of architecture. Urban density, when used to expand access to adequate housing, can be an ally of sustainability. But when driven solely by financial interest, it turns living into a precarious experience, disguised by aesthetic solutions and shared common areas.

Want to dive deeper into the topic?

Watch the full video on our YouTube channel to understand how the minimum apartment model arrived in Brazil — and why it is, in fact, part of a global process of housing financialization!

Disclaimer: The video is in Brazilian Portuguese, but simultaneous translation and subtitles are available in multiple languages.

Curiosity

Why Do So Many Modern Airports Have an “X” Shape?

The work of Dr. Mariangela Hungria and her team at Embrapa presents concrete results in replacing synthetic inputs with biological solutions in agriculture. This model may offer useful directions for other fields, including sustainable construction.

Biotechnology applied to production: reducing inputs and increasing efficiency

Brazilian agriculture has drastically reduced the use of nitrogen fertilizers in soybean cultivation. This substitution was made possible through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), a technique based on bacteria that naturally perform this process.

Today, approximately 85% of Brazil’s soybean area (around 40 million hectares) uses this technology. The impact is measurable:

• Direct savings: about US$ 25 billion per year no longer spent on nitrogen fertilizers.

• Emission reductions: more than 230 million tons of CO₂ equivalent per year avoided.

This type of solution resulted from a national research strategy that began in the 1970s and reached scale through Dr. Hungria’s work over the past four decades. She led the selection of bacteria adapted to tropical soils, where imported genetic solutions from temperate countries proved ineffective.

Co-inoculation and bioinputs: combining solutions for greater productivity and resilience

Beyond BNF, co-inoculation (a technique that applies two bacteria with distinct functions) enables additional benefits:

• Productivity gains: increases of 8% to 16% in soybean compared to single inoculation.

• Greater drought tolerance: plants with larger root mass access deeper soil layers, maintaining productivity during dry spells.

This technique has also been extended to grasses such as corn and wheat, allowing partial reductions in nitrogen use (up to 25%) without loss of yield.

The bioinputs market, driven by these results, is growing 15% to 20% per year in Brazil, with emphasis on solutions developed in partnership with private companies and validated by Embrapa.

Phosphorus solubilization: using resources already present in the soil

Another major agricultural bottleneck is phosphorus. Most tropical soils in Brazil accumulate fixed phosphorus—present, but unavailable to plants. The product BiomaPhos, developed by Hungria’s team, addresses part of this problem.

This bioinput contains bacteria that:

• Solubilize inorganic phosphorus bound to metal oxides;

• Mineralize organic phosphorus from organic matter.

This reduces dependence on imported phosphate fertilizers and improves the efficiency of resources already applied to the soil.

Connection to urban sustainability and construction

The adoption of biological solutions in agriculture reveals three lessons applicable to construction:

1. Reducing dependence on industrial inputs:
   Biological research replaces high-cost, high-impact industrial products with natural processes. This suggests that input logic in construction—especially for materials like cement and steel—can also be rethought.

2. Climate-adapted efficiency:
   The success of these technologies depended on tailoring solutions to tropical conditions. Architectural and engineering projects should consider local environmental conditions more rigorously instead of replicating models from other climates.

3. Regenerative technologies:
   Bioinputs improve soil quality over time. In construction, this can translate into infrastructure that enhances urban environmental conditions, such as systems that reduce heat islands, promote water infiltration, and increase urban permeability.

Final considerations

The solutions developed by Embrapa show that it is possible to combine production scale, economic viability, and reduced environmental impact. This model can serve as a useful parallel for professionals working with sustainability in construction.

There is significant room for innovations that are scalable, economically viable, and adapted to Brazilian conditions. Agro-environmental research can be a starting point for developing new ways to build with lower impact.