Responsible Design and Delivery of the Constructed Project Edited by Abdul-Malak, M., Khoury, H., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S. Copyright © 2018 ISEC Press ISBN: 978-0-9960437-5-5 EPE-04-1 MECHES HOUSE: THE IMPORTANCE OF CHOOSING THE RIGHT BENEFICIARY ON A POST DISASTER ALTERNATIVE CONSTRUCTION ENRIQUE VILLACIS 1 , MARIA LORENA RODRIGUEZ 2 , and CYNTHIA AYARZA 2 1 School of Architecture, Design, and Arts, Pontifical Catholic University, Quito, Ecuador 2 Ensusitio Arq., Quito, Ecuador More than a year ago, Ecuador suffered a 7.8 Mw Earthquake that was devastating, the automatic response was to rush to the affected areas and rebuild. Meche´s House is an alternative: the crisis as an opportunity to experiment and consolidate popular construction systems based on an endogenous and holistic approach. This study evaluates two different methodologies (Mutualista Pichincha´s Casa Lista and Meche´s House) of the selection process for the beneficiaries on a reconstruction post- disaster building program contrasting each case and its needs by analyzing its approaches to the reconstruction procedures: one automatic, non-reflexive and product- based, and one analytic and process-based. Founded on experience and how different processes need different beneficiaries this study will raise some questions about the effectiveness, pros, cons, and perspectives of different approaches to make the correct choice of beneficiary for the reconstruction process after a natural disaster. Keywords: Ecuador, Earthquake, Resiliency, Endogenous. 1 INTRODUCTION This study deals with the importance of choosing the adequate beneficiary for a post-disaster construction process. Based on the values of the process and on the social impact in addition to the building itself, we will show the Ecuadorian seismic reality and different approaches for the reconstruction process and how those require different types of beneficiaries and how it affects their lives and their communities. Ecuador is in constant seismic danger because of its geographical location in the Pacific ring of fire. According to reports; since 1541, there have been 37 major earthquakes, the majority of great magnitude as stated by Sánchez and Limón (2017) On April 16 of 2017, a 7.8 Mw magnitude earthquake hit the coast of Ecuador. The consequences were devastating, 70 % of real estate in the area was destroyed and according to the National Secretariat of Planning and Development (SENPLADES), 13,962 urban and 15,962 rural houses were demolished. Beyond numbers, a lack of technical advice in Ecuador is evident. This fact put in evidence another important issue: over 70% of the buildings that collapsed were built with materials such as concrete, steel, concrete block while most of the buildings that were left standing were made with local construction techniques, such as wood, and bamboo. After his first visits to the affected areas, President Rafael Correa admitted that many buildings collapsed “because of bad construction” Zibell (2016).