Architects should play a major role in the recovery after disasters like the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria, but egotistical posturing will not help anyone, writes Cameron Sinclair.

Countless lives have been lost with many more injured and suffering from the tragic disaster that has struck Turkey and northern Syria. While most people see the wrath borne by tectonic rupture, architects, engineers and construction professionals know that earthquakes don't kill people, bad buildings do.
Currently, somewhere between 7,000 and 15,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, many of which could continue to deteriorate with repeated aftershocks possible in the weeks and months ahead.
Well-meaning commitments and plans can be far worse than not responding at all Entire towns and villages have been decimated and, as I write, valiant volunteers and aid workers are desperately trying to save those still trapped. Some are using bare hands and makeshift inflatable air bladders to lift rubble in an area that already has close to three million refugees displaced by a decade-long war.
In the last 25 years I've been part of dozens of humanitarian responses, engaging building professionals in many projects. From Afghanistan to Haiti, Japan, Syria and the United States, the outpouring of support and desire to help from our profession has always been unwavering.
However, well-meaning commitments and plans can in fact be far worse than not responding at all. When we only commit in the...