Project Status Report
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 1% Construction Administration
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 60% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 95% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 2% Construction Administration
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 5% Construction Administration
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 3 90%
Mme Joa Clinic - 100% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 95% Bid Negotiations
HAITI PROGRESS REPORT - September 29, 2011
Lots of groundbreaking this past month, including a huge initiative with Habitat for Humanity and other partners to build new communities for displaced Haitians...among the first permanent housing projects in the country. Read on for details.
News
- Santo Breaks Ground, Sept 15 - A humble gathering under a tent in the middle of a construction site was present to celebrate.... Catch up as well on the latest Market Charrette
- Groundbreakings at Academie Timoun and Home of Knowledge - Two schools (that could likely see each other from their incredible sites) kicked off this month
- Haiti Schools Update - Synopsis on the Haiti School Initiative via Students Rebuild
- 'AFH Short' by the CBHF - The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund features a beautiful lil' webumentary on the folks behind the construction of our schools (2:21)
Jobs
We're looking for incredible talent for this incredible effort:
Events
This month's Meet N Greet will feature Architect Gerard Emille Brun, CEO of real estate development company NABATEC, and our own Liaison Officer Henry Robert Dupont. Mr Brun will analyze changes in costs of construction in Haiti, and Mr. Dupont will discuss next month's launch of Bati Byen. The event will be held at the Rebuilding Center Friday September 30, from 5:30 to 7:30, with some snacks and refreshments provided. Please contact Rolande Augustin, rolandeaugustin@architectureforhumanity.org, if you are interested in attending!
Comings and Goings
New arrivals at the Port-au-Prince office include: Mike Spinello, Brandon Hubbard, Nathalie Desrosiers, Mari Krakenes, Dot Miller (welcome back!) and new construction outreach professional Gerald Jeanty. We say farewell to Clio Pairaud and wish her well on her return to France (but come back soon!).
Project Status Report
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Set to launch in mid-October!
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 5% Phase 1 Construction Administration
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 55% Phase 1 Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 90% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - Entering Construction Administration
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 10% Phase 1 Construction Administration
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Entering construction
Mme Joa Clinic - 95% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - Entering Construction Admin
J/P HRO - Ongoing–visit the page for details!
Economic Corridors - First 10 business profiles completed!
Project Status Report
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 1% Construction Administration
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 35% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 75% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 99% Phase 1 Bid Negotiations
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 5% Construction Administration
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 3 65%
Mme Joa Clinic - 95% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 5% Bid Negotiations
HAITI PROGRESS REPORT - August 26, 2011
"Our experience has been utterly life-changing, and the worth unmeasurable."
-BAR Architects
It's back-to-school season and schools are entering construction. Meanwhile the Team develops community-led schemes for residential organization and marketplace for the 500-unit permanent community development known as Santo...
Updates
- Home of Knowledge is breaking ground today!
- A 'Timoun' Future - BAR Architects wraps on documentation for the ambitious Academie Timoun
- School construction update - reclaimed materials, Bio-Digesters, composting toilets, earth block testing...hardly yesteryear's Haiti.
- Strengthening the Haitian market - a careful study informs how Haitian markets might develop into economically self-sustaining community resources
- Charrettes deliver insights - Santo community design benefits from direct user feedback
Comings and goings
The Rebuilding Center welcomes new liaison officer Henri Dupont, staff architect Burtland Granvil and volunteers Clio Pairaud, Stephanie Remarais, and Brandon Hubbard. We bid adieu to the BAR team who have been tolerating our compost puns for the past eight months. We also wish a fond farewell to LEED/USGBC design fellow Stacey McMahan–who is returning to Sioux Falls and her principalship at Koch Hazard Architects. Who could fill her shoes??
Events
Tonight, Friday, August 26, join us for our MEET n GREET, fostering dialogue and coordinating partnerships in the Haitian design and construction profession.This month Mr Jackson Germain will discuss the work of HAITI TEC, of which he is academic director. HAITI TEC is a center for Vocational and Technical Training located in the heart of the Industrial Park of Port-au-Prince, dedicated to the training of technicians skilled in architectural design, building and other construction. Doors at 5:30. Contact Roland Augustin for more details.
On Deck
The work of the Rebuilding Center will be featured in a documentary by the Global Nomads Group for LinkTV. The production is due for online release in September–stay tuned for more details.
Jobs
Did we mention our USGBC/LEED Design Fellow position?
Project Status Report
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Henri, our new liaison officer, is setting to work reaching out to local businesses and fielding requests for technical services at the Rebuilding Center. Also, Bati Byen branding is being finalized with the help of SCREAM Marketing of Port-au-Prince.
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 1% Construction Administration
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 17% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 65% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 99% Phase 1 Bid Negotiations
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 1% Construction Administration
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 3 (res units entering construction)
Mme Joa Clinic - 92% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - Entering Bid Negotiations
J/P HRO - Ongoing on various fronts (check out the new landing page!)
Economic Corridors - Compiling survey results
Request your Haiti update via email: haiti-info@architectureforhumanity.org
Project Status Report
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Our liaison officer is setting to work.
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 1% Construction Administration
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 17% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 65% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 99% Phase 1 Bid Negotiations
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 1% Construction Administration
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 3
Mme Joa Clinic - 92% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - Entering Bid Negotiations
Group high five. FREEZE FRAME of group in mid-air. FADE OUT.
Or rather: "the BOQs are being finalized and the last of the drawing set is being printed."
Either way you care to look at it, the design and documentation for Academie Timoun ("Children's Academy") with Haiti Partners has wrapped, concluding a decidedly very successful eight-month Office Fellowhship with BAR Architects. It's a great feeling to have the final drawings in your hands, and it's time to project the next steps.
"The set for Phase One is 47 sheets," reports Will Spurzem, the last member of the BAR professional daisy chain. "The bill of quantities ("BOQs") will be broken down into sections: 2 Story Building/Latrine Building/Site Features 1A/Site Features 1B/Lower Level interior options/Perimeter Walls. This will allow the contractor to create a price per building, per phase, as well as interior work on the lower levels.... All of this documentation will ultimately help the client and the Construction Manager to negotiate cost, phases, and contracts with more authority."
BAR's design is ambitious, but through the rigorous exercises of drafting the construction set and calculating the bill of quantities–and consultation with resident engineer Rick Ehlert throughout development–the project becomes realizable. Will discusses how they've achieved the balance of beauty and achievability:
"The actual shell is relatively simple to build with the right contractor and proper oversight. We have put in a lot of time researching and confirming the size of available materials and made the structure very modular."
The campus plan employs eight two-classroom modules-a very manageable unit size, in which to employ prudence. Here "the major issue of funding comes into play. We have done a master plan…which is quite large. Phasing will be a key issue."
From top: site visit with Jeremy and John Engle; site plan; materials precedents; erosion control mark-ups; Will and Thomas disagree during their handoff; foundation details
So what happens when you donate three weeks to working in an developing nation? Will shares some professional takeaways from Haiti. "Learning while you go is a very exciting process that requires a critical and careful approach to design," he explains. "It is easy to lose sight of the two major issues for clients, which are scope and complexity. The building could be wonderful but be too large or too complex to finish."
Will, BAR and Haiti Partners are all too aware of the financial considerations for building in Haiti, and have chosen a path whereupon funding and construction can happen simultaneously, if need be.
Meanwhile, the architects can hardly contain their excitement. "This has been a wonderful project and everyone is excited to see this work go out to bid as soon as possible/" Architecture for Humanity will take on the search for the right contractor over the next month; groundbreaking for the Academie Timoun is slated for Sunday, September 25.
We're learning from BAR as they learn from us. Catching up on 8 months of Design Fellowing is easy as BAR has maintained a blog of their progress and experiences for the duration of their time in Haiti. A full record of the Office Fellowship experience is just a Tumblr address away: http://bararchitects.tumblr.com/
Commerce in Haiti generally spills onto sidewalks, into streets and down avenues. Out here, merchants establish wooden fruit and vegetable stands or take to selling wares from the ground or on foot. As consolidated hubs of commerce, Haitian market buildings are keystones for the distribution of goods and wares; they epitomize the self-employed merchant economy that's ubiquitous here.
Traditional Haitian market buildings reflect a common typology. Covered open-air buildings supply stalls and other resources for selling every imaginable product: fresh produce and meat; dried, cooked and packaged food; metalwork, crafts and paintings; household items, auto parts, clothes and toys. Stalls, usually divided concrete counters, are rented to vendors on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Markets are often enclosed by walls and accessed through formal openings along each of the sides. Market management is responsible for keeping the premises clean and supplying the vendors with various amenities.
Yet many of these spaces are left vacant while commerce swirls beyond their walls. Informal stands stacked against market façades slow or block pedestrian and vehicular traffic, spreading at times to the middle of street lanes, over which truck axles are able to pass.
Kenscoff Market: Exterior; Interior; Section
"It's a very interesting situation," Nancy Doran relates. A design associate with Architecture for Humanity in Haiti, Nancy is by now quite familiar with the system of local markets–she just submitted a study of nine such structures around Port-au-Prince and Léogâne. Competition against unaffiliated vendors is a recurring theme, as is questionable management. "Some markets are in better shape than others, but not even the subsidized ones are perfect."
Formal Haitian markets can potentially provide safe, sanitary environments that couldn't be assured by your average street merchant. Whether or not these markets are wrestling with economic obstruction, proper environments are rarely provided for. When vendors pay for a market stall–at 350-1750 gourdes ($6.25-$43.75) per week–they should be receiving unmatched advantages in sanitation, storage, utilities and overall visibility. But where drainage and waste disposal are poor, and market entrances are left unmarked or are obscured by informal stalls, a market's benefits aren't so apparent. Where management's not organized, the best of intentions can fall apart.
On the other side of the situation stands the Iron Market–a historically significant landmark that, since the earthquake, has undergone a complete, privately-funded makeover. By all appearances, the Iron Market resolves many of the Haitian market's hobbling issues. Stalls with lattices and storage, proper drainage, services and security, and separated waste streams, have all become available to merchants for a stupefying 100-150 gourdes/week. These figures, it turns out, are a bit misleading.
Marche en fer "Iron Market," downtown Port-au-Prince: View from Boulevard Jean Jacques Dessalines; Interior; Clock tower
"We identified the Iron Market as a non-sustainable case study," Nancy points out. The venue is being supported by investments beyond those of its tenants. Being the first (and, to date, only) new construction in downtown PAP, the Iron Market has been a symbol of the capital's renaissance. Such significance warrants, to be sure, the recycling bins and one-guard per-aisle security detail, as well as subsidized stall fees. Nancy holds this case study at arm's length. "We'd like to see a lot of this in every market, but we'd like it to be economically self-sustaining."
Marche Salomon, downtown Port-au-Prince: Interior; Section and plan
The analysis and observations of the nine case studies will work themselves into a market design for the new community of Santo. For this market, Nancy and the rest of the Haiti Rebuilding Center are trying to make rentable stalls the most appealing way to sell merchandise. The Report's conclusions have been getting the Center's brains churning:
- Decrease 'interstitial' space between market and road. Bring the market closer to streets, tap taps and moto stops.
- Break down barriers. The division between interior and exterior seem to be doing the studied markets few favors. Interiors become dark, cavernous and isolated.
- Develop along a use-based layout. The formal/axial layouts of many of the observed markets ignore the most obvious pathways connecting a community. By studying and developing around inherent pathways, the community will be encouraged to walk between market stalls on their way to school or work–a destination may be more utilized when it's on the way to a destination.
- Make it easier to work. 'Quality management, sanitation and security are crucial' for making a market inviting and healthy. But enabling work is another part of the puzzle. The team observed a majority of the vendors to be women–perhaps more vendors would be attracted to working at a market if it could look after their family. If a market had a childcare system, what would that look like?
Nancy is quick to admit she doesn't have all the answers. "We need to design the market in partnership with the community through open dialog and a series of community based design charrettes. I see our key role in this project as being primarily that of a facilitator. In the end it is a community project, designed by the community." Notions that surpass expectations of a market, including childcare or cooperative ownership, have to be fully vetted. New concepts will have to work in the minds of the community before there is any hope of them working in reality.
The market charrette is scheduled for next week.
Amenities: recycling bin; hand-washing station; drainage channels
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Welcome new liaison officer Henri Dupont!
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 1% Construction Administration
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 15% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 65% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 99% Phase 1 Bid Negotiations
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 1% Construction Administration
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - 27% Phase 3
Mme Joa Clinic - 89% Bid Negotiations
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 95% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 95% Construction Documents
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - Request For Proposals Closed.
Bon bagay! The Rebuilding Center works through a flurry of activity at the peak of summer–including several generously-offered (and incredible) video shorts. Enjoy!
School construction
École La Dignité has completed foundations and slab and walls are now going up, while Elie Dubois undergoes demolition. Meanwhile, builders at Montrouis are absorbing techniques for safer building practices as foundations are being dug and sights are set for November 1 completion.
Communities plan communities
The Santo Community Development Plan, with Habitat for Humanity International, moves into its third phase of planning a fully-serviced development for 500 families outside Léogâne. Phase 3 includes finalizing civil works design, housing and sanitation systems, and exploring a community/sports center and commercial corridor scheme. Nearby residents will be engaged in three additional community charrettes–see below.
Surveys back
The Economic Corridors team is analyzing over 400 business surveys...and the many business owners working to spring back. Review the methodology (pdf) and read some of the business' stories (pdf).
Civic arts initiative seeking artists
The Civic Arts for Haitian Schools RFQ is about to close its application phase–spread the word and let your local contacts know they could have their creation installed on the grounds of a rebuilt school in Haiti. Deadline is fast approaching - see the application for details.
Calling all CAD and BIM maestros
The Center is looking for assistance training new sessions of Haitian professionals in Autocad and Revit software. Sessions last two weeks and comprise of 12-person classes held at the Rebuilding Center, travel and lodging provided by Architecture for Humanity. Contact the Rebuilding Center for details.
Welcome to the team!
The Rebuilding Center welcomes accountant Nicole Jeanty, construction outreach professionals Lyonel Saintime and Douyon Clotaire and volunteers Ben Gordon, Josh Canez, David Gonzalez and Sven Kalim.
Videos
- Santo Housing Charrette - (3:19) In-house montage of the latest in community-developed planning.
- Save the Children School - (5:30) The NYU Schack Institute-produced short on the Rebuiding Center's completion of Ceverine, filmed last March.
- Students Rebuild Videoconferece highlights - (3:15) En direct de Port-au-Prince–check out this closing exchange between Haitian, North American and British high schoolers talking politics and supporting one another through the recovery.
In the Media
- Taking the First Steps Toward Progress - Design fellow Stacey McMahan's account of the recovering CNIAH - the Haitian institute of architects (Huffington Post, 7/14)
Events
The next Rebuilding Center Meet & Greet is this Friday, July 29. Presenter Cassandre Méhu discusses a new infrastructure design for Rue Métélus and Route de Delmas that will alleviate pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The event kicks off at 5:30 - contact Rolande Augustin for more information.
Santo Housing Charrette: July 14, 2011
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - Program launched May 23
Professional workshop & training - Preparations for Business Edge program with SOFIHDES
Vocational training - On-site training with Build Change continues through the Haiti Schools Initiative with Bon Berger Montrouis
Consumer awareness - Discussing advertising media with marketing consultant
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 1% Construction Administration
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 15% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 60% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 95% Phase 1 Bid Negotiations
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 100% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 3
Mme Joa Clinic - 75% Bid Negotiations
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 95% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 89% Construction Documents
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - Request For Proposals Closed.
"This new seismic- and hurricane-resistant school that Architecture for Humanity has provided for all Montrouisiens and Montrouisiennes will be like oxygen for our education system." -Wilson d'Or, headmaster, Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger
The Rebuilding Center is entering July on a high: launching a civic arts RFQ, entering construction on several schools, making headway on urban commercial improvements and hosintg our Community Builders.
Calling All Artists: Civic art in Haiti's schools
Last week we launched a Request for Qualifications for Haitian artists to design, build and install art pieces on the campuses of our Haiti school projects. Entrants from the Haitian art community will be evaluated by a panel including schoolowners throughout the summer; deadline for qualifications is August 1, with works scheduled for installation by Jan 1, 2012. Donate to the Civic arts program via Kickstarter today!
Commercial Corridors starts surveying
In line with the next stage of the Economic Corridors project, we're conducting surveys of Haitian businesses from the focus zones to understand the dynamics of local economies. The surveys will help target businesses to make them more competitive economic assets. Read more.
New SME financial model
We've been developing a micro-loan model through which local businesses ("SME"s) can get off the ground. Architecture for Humanity is now seeking financial partners - let us know if you're interested!
Community Builders visit the Rebuilding Center
Several members of the US Green Building Council - which has been funding a Haiti design fellow for the past year - spent five days with members of the Rebuilding Center touring projects and getting a sense of the effort. See what they have to say on our YouTube channel.
The Community Builders form an advisory and support network for Architecture for Humanity - ask us for details.
Schools under construction
- École La Dignité has completed the foundation and floor slab of its extension–working toward an end-of-July completion.
- Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Monrouis, celebrated groundbreaking last Friday, June 24, following the completion of demolition and a construction training session with Build Change.
- Demolition at École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele, is complete–construction training and ground breaking to follow!
- École Elie Dubois demolition has commenced–clearing a structurally unsound building to make way for a multipurpose chapel. Furniture and materials will be salvaged as much as possible for the new facility.
Videos
- Groundbreaking at Montrouis - montage of the first day of construction (1:12)
- Santo and Sports - on-site with design fellow Darren Gill (3:31)
- Supporting by Seeing - USGBC's Dan Geiger reflects on a recent visit (4:05)
Project Status Report
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Bati Byen advances into July: bringing on a communications officer to assist the Center; correlating economic corridor data for reports following next week's break; finalizing campaign procedures with our marketing consultants.
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 99% Bid Negotiations
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 10% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 34% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 95% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 85% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 3
Mme Joa Clinic - Entering Bid Negotiations
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - Fundraising
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 65% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - Request For Proposals closed
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - Program launched May 23
Professional workshop & training - Preparations for Business Edge program with SOFIHDES
Vocational training - On-site training with Build Change continues through the Haiti Schools Initiative with Bon Berger Montrouis
Consumer awareness - Discussing advertising media with marketing consultant
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 99% Bid Negotiations
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 10% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 34% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 95% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 85% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 3
Mme Joa Clinic - Entering Bid Negotiations
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 95% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 5% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - Request For Proposals Closed.
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - Program launched May 23
Professional workshop & training - Preparations for Business Edge program with SOFIHDES
Vocational training - On-site training with Build Change continues through the Haiti Schools Initiative with Bon Berger Montrouis
Consumer awareness - Discussing advertising media with marketing consultant
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 99% Bid Negotiations
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 10% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 34% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 95% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 85% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 3
Mme Joa Clinic - Entering Bid Negotiations
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 95% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 5% Phase 1a Construction Documents
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - Request For Proposals Closed.
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - Program launched May 23
Professional workshop & training - Preparations for Business Edge program with SOFIHDES
Vocational training - On-site training with Build Change continues through the Haiti Schools Initiative with Bon Berger Montrouis
Consumer awareness - Discussing advertising media with marketing consultant
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 90% Bid Negotiations
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - Entering Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 34% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 75% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 15% Bid Negotiations
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 2
Mme Joa Clinic - Entering Bid Negotiations
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 95% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 5% Phase 1a Construction Documents
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - Request For Proposals Closed. Winner to be announced the week of June 12
Economic Mapping of Port-au-Prince
The Rebuilding Center continues to map commercial corridors around Port-au-Prince, evaluating for economic improvements. This week the team continues with Route de Delmas, Canapé Vert and Champs de Mars. Mapping and reconstruction of economic corridors is an ongoing effort supported by the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
Construction Outreach
Architecture for Humanity has trained four construction supervisors to assist on-site capacity building. The supervisors maintain constant rapport between the Haiti Rebuilding Center and construction sites. The Rebuilding Center plans to deploy a larger crew to assess buildings under construction in and around Port-au-Prince. Bios of our supervisors and other staff are are showcased on Architecture for Humanity's People Page.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The Rebuilding Center has launched its M&E program with Associates for International Management Services and welcomes M&E Design Fellow Lauren Young to the Port-au-Prince office. The M&E program will assess outcomes and impact of Rebuilding Center projects as part of Bati Byen.
Students Rebuild
Students Rebuild has recently spent two weeks in Haiti running Interactive Videoconferences and Webcasts between Haitian and overseas students and with notable Haitian cultural figures.
Check out our Spring 2011 Update on Schools. Coverage of school construction will continue into the summer–including next week's start of construction at Montrouis! Special thanks to the Global Nomads Group and Bezos Family Foundation for aligning the dreams of Haitian and overseas students through this incredible program!
AN JWE?
The Game On? Haiti Sports Micro Venture Fund request for proposals closed on May 23rd. The entries ranged from simple insertions at existing locations to ambitious long term plans all over Haiti. The jury are currently reviewing the entries and conducting site surveys. The results will be announced around June 1 and the Rebuilding Center team will support the winning entries to realize the winning entries over the coming months.
Upcoming Event: May Meet & Greet at the Haiti Rebuilding Center
The Rebuilding Center is gearing up for this month's Meet n Greet on Friday, May 27. Special guest speaker Françoise Behrmann will present the renovation of Port-au-Prince's famous Iron Market. Think you'll be in town? Contact haiti-info@architectureforhumanity.org for more information.
PROJECT STATUS
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - Program launched May 23 (see update above)
Professional workshop & training - Preparations for Business Edge program with SOFIHDES
Vocational training - On-site training with Build Change continues through the Haiti Schools Initiative with Bon Berger Montrouis
Consumer awareness - Discussing advertising media with marketing consultant
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 85% Bid Negotiations
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 95% Bid Negotiations
École La Dignité - 15% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 5% Phase 1 Schematic Design
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 95% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 2
Mme Joa Clinic - 30% Construction Documents
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 60% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 100% Phase 1a Design Development
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - Request For Proposals
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - Consultant identified
Professional workshop & training - Upcoming Business Edge Program for Architects, Contractors and Engineers slated to launch April 15
Vocational training - Build Change training at Dignité for construction complete - surveys to go around to participants for review & testimonials
Consumer awareness - Local marketing consultant hired
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 83% Bid Negotiations
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 99% Bid Negotiations
École La Dignité - 15% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 5% Phase 1 Design Development
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 97% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 2
Mme Joa Clinic - 30% Construction Documents
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 60% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 100% Phase 1a Design Development
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - 95% Request For Proposals
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - Consultant identified
Professional workshop & training - Upcoming Business Edge Program for Architects, Contractors and Engineers slated to launch April 15
Vocational training - Build Change training at Dignité for construction complete - surveys to go around to participants for review & testimonials
Consumer awareness - Local marketing consultant hired
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 40% Bid Negotiations
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 95% Bid Negotiations
École La Dignité - 25% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 2% Phase 1 Schematic Design
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 95% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 2
Mme Joa Clinic - 30% Construction Documents
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 30% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - 50% Design Development
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - 95% Request For Proposals
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - Consultant identified
Professional workshop & training - Upcoming Business Edge Program for Architects, Contractors and Engineers slated to launch April 15
Vocational training - Build Change training at Dignité for construction complete - surveys to go around to participants for review & testimonials
Consumer awareness - Local marketing consultant hired
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 35% Bid Negotiations
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 80% Bid Negotiations
École La Dignité - 16% Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 25% Masterplan
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 75% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 2
Mme Joa Clinic - 50% Construction Documents
J/P HRO Sante Pou Tout Moun Clinic - 100% Construction Administration
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - 75% Schematic Design
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - RFP issued
In Japanese culture, as elsewhere, April is a sign of new beginnings. This couldn't be more true for the various projects conducted by the Rebuiliding Center, as in the past seveal weeks we've seen the completion of a school, the launch of several others, and the growth of the Bati Bien program. Perhaps just as appropriately, paper cranes have materialized at several of these events.
Ins and Outs
The Rebuilding Center welcomes the addition of Martine Theodore as its Economic Development Director! After several years working with such communities as Little Haiti in Miami and heading several Haitian American entrepreneurial organizations, Martine has found an opportunity to put her skills to setting Haitian businesses on a firm foundation.
We also welcome new Design Fellows René Lafontant, Carl Harrigan, Education Architect Kate Evarts, returning volunteer Lisa Smyth, and wish Schendy Kernizan and Lyndia Mesidor the best in their grad school pursuits in New England–just in time for spring!
Project Updates
- Ceverine officially opened the doors of its new addition March 7, becoming the first completed permanent school for Architecture for Humanity in Haiti.
- École La Dignité broke ground April 1 following a touching opening ceremony.
- A dedication ceremony was held at École Elie Dubois, where designs of the new school were shared and students folded paper cranes to support earthquake recovery in Japan
- Design Fellow Stacey McMahan walks the new site of Home of Knowledge with its students and doesn't forget the flip cam!
- The Rebuilding Center has brought on a Construction Outreach team to work with contractors of its various projects, and is recruiting a Haitian marketing and communications firm to help put the word on the street as part of its Bati Byen Initiative
- Students Rebuild expands its focus to assist Japan reconstruction with a very popular "Paper Cranes or Japan" program alongside DoSomething.org. While the Bezos Family Foundation is cranking out matching funds for the expected 100,000 cranes collected for a public sculpture, Students Rebuild is also preparing a final series of Interactive Videoconferences and Webcasts from Haiti
Project Status (as of April 1)
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - RFP close-out. Interviewing potential consultants
Professional workshop & training - Upcoming Business Edge Program for Architects, Contractors and Engineers slated to launch April 15
Vocational training - J/P HRO training at Pele for demolition; Build Change training at Dignité for construction
Consumer awareness - Local marketing consultant hired
Haiti School Initiative
Ceverine - 100% Construction Administration
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 100% Construction Documents
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 20% Bid Negotiations
École La Dignité - Entering Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 5% Phase 1 Design Development
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 75% Phase 1 Construction Documents
St. Louis de Gonzague Main Campus - Predesign
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 2
Mme Joa Clinic - 30% Construction Documents
J/P HRO Sante Pou Tout Moun Clinic - 70% Construction Administration
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - Schematic Design
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - RFP issued
Resource Needs
- Positions: Director of Planning - Construction Manager - Project Coordinator (Urban Planner) - Design Fellow, Urban Planner - Volunteers
- The Rebuilding Center is seeking a plotter/large-format printer to boost its productive capacity. For those with spare plotters lying around, contact the Rebuilding Center to coordinate its reactivation!
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Monitoring & evaluation - RFP close-out. Interviewing potential consultants
Professional workshop & training - Upcoming Business Edge Program for Architects, Contractors and Engineers slated to launch April 15
Vocational training - J/P HRO training at Pele for demolition; Build Change training at Dignité for construction
Consumer awareness - Local marketing consultant hired
Haiti School Initiative
Ceverine - 100% Construction Administration
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 100% Construction Documents
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 20% Bid Negotiations
École La Dignité - Entering Construction Administration
École Elie Dubois - 5% Phase 1 Design Development
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 75% Phase 1 Construction Documents
St. Louis de Gonzague Main Campus - Predesign
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - Phase 2
Mme Joa Clinic - 30% Construction Documents
J/P HRO Sante Pou Tout Moun Clinic - 70% Construction Administration
College Mixte LaConcorde Orphanage - Schematic Design
Nike Sports Micro-Venture Fund - RFP issued
Project Status
Ceverine School - 100% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 75% Bid Negotiations
Bon Berger Pele - 90% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Home of Knowledge - 75% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Bon Berger Montrouis - 95% Phase 1 Construction Documents
École Mixte de Nancy - 20% Construction Documents
Elie Dubois - 5% Design Development
Mme Joa Clinic - 20% Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Academy - 10% Schematic Design
Project Updates
Project Status
Ceverine School - 99.9% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 50% Bid Negotiations
Bon Berger Pele - 95% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Home of Knowledge - 85% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Bon Berger Montrouis - 100% Phase 1 Construction Documents
École Mixte de Nancy - 40% Construction Documents
Elie Dubois - 5% Design Development
Mme Joa Clinic - Entering Construction Documents
Haiti Partners Academy - Program Development
Project Updates
- Ceverine is very nearly complete. Site assessment next week, team to schedule post-occupancy evaluation in 6 months.
- Montrouis Bill of Quantities being finalized. Then the project goes to bid in a process revised following Dignité bid exercise.
- Dignite bid opened, with three applications to date, for Team to review.
- Foyer du Savoir community meeting last week included site walking with kids and discussion of new school, followed by a visioning exercise at the current transitional schoolbuilding.
Project Status
Ceverine School - 99% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 50% Bid Negotiations
Bon Berger Pele - 95% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Home of Knowledge - 85% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Bon Berger Montrouis - 90% Phase 1 Construction Documents
École Mixte de Nancy - 40% Construction Documents
Elie Dubois - 5% Design Development
Mme Joa Clinic - 100% Schematic Design
Haiti Partners Academy - Program Development
Project Updates
- Haiti Partners Academy sending out topo surveyors. BAR Fellow Douglas meeting with client on concept design, and with Stacey hosted a community meeting devoted to discussing the school–100 plus community members attended, a pleasant surprise.
- Pele demo going well. Looking to get a rubble crusher on site.
- Simone and Stacey to host community engagement meeting for Foyer to Savoir.
- This month's Meet n Greet a screening of a movie on Haitian architect Albert Mangones
Perhaps you've heard–Sweet Mickey has made the Haitian presidential run-off, and Architecture for Humanity has started construction (well, demolition) of its second school, and conducting contractor bid negotiations for the third.
Not bad, considering the internationally-recognized bid process had been until recently a novelty for the Haitian construction industry.
New Program
With the support of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, the Rebuilding Center is launching its Bati Byen program.
With consumer awareness, capacity builiding and professional outreach for Haitian architects and builders, Bati Byen aims to fill the gaps in the process of strengthening the Haitian construction industry to meet
international expectations.
New Folks
The Center has brought on several new staff in the first weeks of 2011.
We wholeheartedly welcome structural engineer Rick Ehlert, construction management design fellow Stephane Cherduville, volunteer coordinator and development assistant Sergine Francoeur and office manager Rolande Augustin.
We also welcome our 2011 volunteer team: Gerry Reilly, Tommy Stewart, Simone Ruschmeier, TJ Olson, Dorothy Miller and BAR Architects Lisa Victor, Chris Haegglund and Douglas Oliver–great to have all on board assisting our projects!
New Projects
As Ceverine completes construction, Save the Children asked Architecture for Humanity to pursue a retorfit of the nearby Madame Joa Clinic.
The team is entertaining alternative materials for this project where possible, as a first foray into progressive building techniques for Haiti.
The clinic design is being led by our professional design fellow partners BAR Architects, who are also investigating a school project with Haiti Partners in the hills just east of Port-au-Prince.
Project Updates
- Pre-bid meeting was a resounding success–nine serious contenders are interested in working on Dignité and site visit scheduled for Friday 2/18.
(Pictured above: Stephane discusses the Ditnité bid process with visiting contractors.) - Pele demolition has launched, with newly-trained local laborers and a bunch of sledge hammers.
- Montrouis CD’s to finish this Friday.
- Ceverine is nearly there.
Craftsmen are installing grass-woven clerestory vents and other custom items. - Home of Knowledge has a community engagement meeting planned for next Thursday at the old school with students, teachers and the headmaster.
- Mme Joa Clinic entertaining reuse of rubble in new construction materials.
- Students Rebuild wraps its third session of interactive videoconferences between Haitian and North American students.
Check out IVC highlights and a slew of webumentaries from their recent trip–including a glimpse into the life of the headmaster at Pele school.
Project Status
Ceverine School - 99% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 40% Bid Negotiations
Bon Berger Pele - 90% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Home of Knowledge - 85% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Bon Berger Montrouis - 80% Phase 1 Construction Documents
École Mixte de Nancy - 40% Construction Documents
Elie Dubois - 5% Design Development
Mme Joa Clinic - 99% Schematic Design
These days students going to Pele are starting their lessons to the sound of crushing stone. While class at École Baptiste Bon Berger continues under the campus' many wood-framed transitional classrooms, the adjacent concrete school block has attracted the attention of about a dozen men in blue hardhats. On the newly-shored-up rooftop the men are driving sledge hammers into the concrete slab at their feet.
Schendy sent along some photographs of the hammering, and talked about how the Pele demolition was going to work. Perhaps the largest factor is that the demolition will be carried out by hand–no wrecking balls or dynamite, just two crews of eight local laborers (and a couple supervisors) breaking down the building piece by piece. A second alteration to typical demolition is the transportation of the debris–or lack of transportation. Wherever possible, rubble from the massive two-story block will be sorted on campus–with at least the first story's worth intended to become infill in the new construction. In addition to the substantial reduction of the material footprint of demolition and construction, this process also saves on rubble removal and material delivery trips to a tricky-to-access urban site.
The helmeted men are ripping out chunks of powdery concrete and lengths of rebar and tossing it onto the vacant courtyard below. They'll be doing this for the next couple months. With as much deliberation taken into the by-hand demolition and material collecting, the Haiti team is hoping to maximize safety and opportunity going into the eventual construction.
Photos by Schendy Kernizan
Project Status
Ceverine School - 99% Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 40% Bid Negotiations
Bon Berger Pele - 90% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Home of Knowledge - 85% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Bon Berger Montrouis - 80% Phase 1 Construction Documents
École Mixte de Nancy - 40% Construction Documents
Elie Dubois - 5% Design Development
Mme Joa Clinic - 99% Schematic Design
Project Updates
- Pre-bid meeting was a resounding success. Nine serious contenders to build Dignité and site visit scheduled for Friday 2/18.
- Pele demo to start Monday 2/21 a 8AM. Teams are trained and ready to go.
- Montrouis CD’s to finish next Friday.
- Ceverine is nearly there. Craftsmen are installing grass-woven clerestory vents and other custom items.
- Home of Knowledge has a community engagement meeting planned for next Thursday at the old school with students, teachers and the headmaster.
- Mme Joa Clinic entertaining reuse of rubble in new construction materials.
Pele making headway. Classrooms nearly done. Latrine is 70%. Demo: training is happening with help of partner org recruiting local laborers to get trained and participate in demolition. We should get a time-lapse camera on site, as close as we've been working with this school.
Dignite: Darren, Tommy, Stephane and Eric teamed up with Peace Dividend Trust to schedule training meetings with prospective contractor teams. The first was the release the project, where invited contractors came and learned about the scope of the project, scope of work, received the drawings and saw a preview of the administrative process: forms, reporting, etc., so they'll know what's to be expected on this project and future projects with Architecture for Humanity. It's also an a get to know you time. Friday is a site visit in Cayes Jacmel, followed by a pre-bid meeting, where contractors can ask questions after they've studied the documents and visited the site. Following that will be the award of the contract. After the award, all of the contractors will get together to review the winning bid–and discuss why it won, what makes a good bid, a good format…and the contractors requested it!
Mme Joa: Douglas from BAR has arrived, and is a machine. The second of the BAR relay Design Fellow landed on Friday and is rolling on the schematics/dd stage of this simple building, and it's moving fast. Looks like construction will be block. The office is questioning whether or not to reuse the existing building, which has some very poor construction and features sagging beams and rotting blocks. The idea of using the site's rich clay for Compressed Earth Block has to heed to a few issues, such as the fact the clinic will fall into the charge Haiti's Health Ministry, which might take issue with an alternative building material. Perhaps a smaller building on site could use the clay, like the latrine, if it fits within the timeline of the project's contract.
Project Status
Ceverine - 99% Construction Administration
Elie Dubois - 5% Design Development
Bon Berger Montrouis - 60% Construction Documents
Bon Berger Pele - 90% Phase 1 Construction Documents
École La Dignité - 25% Bid Negotiations
Home of Knowledge - 85% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Mme Joa Clinic - 75% Schematic Design
Project Updates
- Pre-bid meeting for Ecole Dignité on Monday. Eight contractors coming in to be introduced to PM standards and bid instructions for them to run with. Next Friday: on-site visit.
- Pele demo pending on payment processing.
- Montrouis CD’s to finish in two weeks.
- Ceverine: Darren on the road to certify final completion. Preparing a site report.
- Home of Knowledge is awaiting standard detail set. The Haiti team is developing a Standard Haiti Details OAN page for use on HOK and for further reference.
Project Status
Ceverine - 95% Construction Administration
Elie Dubois - 5% Design Development
Bon Berger Montrouis - 60% Construction Documents
Bon Berger Pele - 90% Phase 1 Construction Documents
École La Dignité - 100% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Home of Knowledge - 85% Phase 1 Construction Documents
Mme Joa Clinic - 5% Schematic Design
Project Updates
- Ceverine nearly complete. Awaiting painting and locally-crafted windows
- Mme Jou Clinic found to be sited on rich clay soil. Discussion of prudence of specifying compressed earth block
- Pele and Elie Dubois are visited by Students Rebuild team to introduce construction process and prep for Interactive Video Conferences
- Team acquires new batch of custom t-shirts, many for distribution to supporters
- Eric Cesal and Sandhya Janardhan assist panel discussions at the Building Back Better Communities conference in Port-au-Prince
Students Rebuild
- Global Nomads Group hosts four rounds of Interactive Video Conferences between Haitian and North American Students. Est. beneficiaries: 300
- Captains conference discussing efforts and moving forward. Beneficiaries: 6
RBC Volunteers: 5
HQ Volunteers: 2
For Immediate Release
Contact Diana Bianchini, Di Moda PR, press@architectureforhumanity.org, 323-359-8850. This progress update is available in a fully-interactive format online in English and Français.
"I had the dream but Architecture for Humanity makes it happen."—Pastor Dorcinvil Wilkesse, School Owner and Principal, Home of Knowledge Institute, Port-au-Prince
The anniversary of any disaster offers a moment to reflect, no more so than in Haiti where more than 1,000,000 people remain displaced a year after the 7.0 earthquake destroyed lives and livelihoods. Even in the best case scenario rebuilding takes years. In Haiti, violence, political uncertainty and the recent cholera outbreak have slowed the work.
Despite these hurdles, the Architecture for Humanity team is making strong progress. We started out with a plan. (Steal this plan.) In this first year, we've established a rebuilding center, distributed a basic guide to rebuilding safely to thousands, provided urban planning and construction expertise to our partners, and, most critically, worked to rebuild schools. All told, our design services have impacted the lives of more than 37,935 to date.
Looking ahead, we're excited to see students back in school. We're excited about our partnership with the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to help rebuild small businesses, restore jobs, and bring Haiti's economy back to life. And, we're excited—together with our partners—to help build a more sustainable future in Haiti.
Our impact
Distributed Rebuilding 101 Manual to 5,000+ builders
Provided Mason training grant impacting 500 builders
Schools in design and construction: 7, impacting 3,027 students
Hosted 58 visiting professionals (long-term and short-term)
Performed damage assessments of structures impacting 4,218 people
Designed camp improvements and upgrades impacting 25,000 people
Number of Haitians employed on projects to date: 1,340
Total design and construction beneficiaries to date: 37,935
In Their Own Words
It's Hammer Time Schendy Kernizan at a demolition site in Pele Credit: Schendy Kernizan
Design Matters Eric Cesal on the role of architects in Haiti Credit: Architecture for Humanity Auckland
The Daily Jam Architect Yves François on his daily commute Credit: Yves François
Students Rebuild
Some of the most rewarding work we've done this year has been with students. Through Students Rebuild, we're rebuilding schools, brick by brick, day by day with funds raised for students by students.
Students Rebuild is a joint initiative of Architecture for Humanity, the Bezos Family Foundation and Global Nomads Group. Students are invited to start a team and raise funds to build schools in Haiti. In turn, students in Haiti are participating in designing schools and connecting with students around the world.
Their funds are matched dollar for dollar (up to $2,500 per team) by the Bezos Family Foundation. Live videoconferencing, a standards-based curriculum, design workshops and a weekly blog keep students and educators connected and informed.
To date, we've raised $120,881 from 103 teams of students in eight countries before the matching grant.
With the help of the Clinton Global Initiative, Barefoot Foundation Global Philanthropy Group, and The Stiller Foundation, we've committed to help build at least ten schools. Our goal is to raise $500,000 through Students Rebuild to support this goal. As you can see by the number of schools in design or construction below, we're making good progress—and we're having fun doing it. Thank you to all the students in Haiti and beyond who are building a better future.
Building Back Business
We're pleased to announce a grant from The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to support building back businesses in Haiti. The $816,472 grant to Architecture for Humanity, in support of the Rebuilding Center in Port-au-Prince will enable small and growing Haitian businesses to par-ticipate in post-earthquake reconstruction and ensure rebuilding incorporates better design and engineering.
The Rebuilding Center will serve as a one-stop-shop to provide technical expertise to Haiti's construction sector. It should help put more than 5,000 Haitians back to work and benefit the lives of 30,000 people within three years by providing workforce training, consumer education, and professional referrals. Part of this work will include supporting lenders and micro-finance institutions making construction loans. The goal: To make sure Haiti design and construction firms are aware of—and can compete for—reconstruction bids and tender opportunities while helping Haiti's entrepreneurs build back better.
While recent developments in Haiti have made working conditions less than nominal, our team is cautiously determined to meet our 2010 milestones before winter break. Over the past weeks, cholera has not abated and the international reaction to presidential election results has been less than orderly. Twice in the past month the Architecture for Humanity house enacted 4-day lockdowns to weather inclement protests. Still, with the start of winter break less than a week away, our staff and volunteers are doing a final push to finish construction document sets to pass to contractors at the start of 2011. The Rebuilding Center winter break begins this Saturday, December 18. The office intends to reopen January 5. Architecture for Humanity will release ground condition updates throughout the recess.
Headlines
Team finishing CD's despite demonstrations
(source: Architecture for Humanity)
Haiti team wraps 2010–three CD sets, completed site surveys and Pele demolition prep
(source: Students Rebuild Field Notes)
Haiti team researches and develops an inventive waste composting system for Pele
(source: Students Rebuild Field Notes)
Youth Rock the Rebuild amps up reconstruction funding…with a little help from our friends
(source: Architecture for Humanity)
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund announces $800,000 grant to support Rebuilding Center
(source: Architecture for Humanity)
BAR Architects firm commitment for innovative design fellowship
The San Francisco-based BAR Architects had been for several months following our work in Haiti before they decided to take a plunge. Receiving interest from nearly a dozen seasoned employees, BAR approached us with the idea of volunteering in Haiti for six months…collectively. Presently the group is being paired with a school project for design and construction oversight during their half-year tenure. BAR found means to donate their professional services by pooling outstanding PTO from the entire office–quite an inventive way of getting compassionate professionals on the ground!
2011 sees reopening of Haiti School Initiative grant
Round two applications for school reconstruction through the Haiti Schools Initiative will be reviewed throughout January 2011. We hope to have the final schools selected by the end of January so we can launch into design as Round 1 schools enter construction. More information–including official announcement of grant reopening–to come following the New Year.
Student Rebuild team captains
Over recent weeks the youth philanthropy program has been coordinating with representatives of the student teams to connect, catch up on effort and advise on the upcoming second year of the program. If you know middle or high school students who want to get involved with Haiti reconstruction, have them check out this incredible program. Student teams will be featured on the Field Notes as a recurring series. Queries and team captain selections can be sent to studentsrebuild@architectureforhumanity.org.
Last call for Haiti senior staff applications
If you or someone you know has been meaning to send in an application to work with our team and got mixed up in holiday cards, there's still time left to apply! Check out positions for a senior architect specializing in education; and an ambitious urban planner.
Project Board (progress status from 12/16)
Haiti School Initiative
View the Four Round 1 Schools background and grant information on Students Rebuild
Bon Berger Montrouis - 90% Construction Documents
Bon Berger Pele - 95% Construction Documents (for Phase 1)
Ecole La Dignite - 90% Construction Documents
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 80% Construction Documents (for Phase 1)
Related Haiti Construction Projects
Ceverine School - 80% Construction Administration
Ecole Mixte de Nancy - 80% Design Development
Ecole Elie Dubois - Design Development
Digicel House for Woodline - 100% Construction Documents
Digicel House for Odeline - 100% Construction Documents
See a full overview of our program and projects at the Haiti Rebuilding Center page on the Open Architecture Network.
Thanks to our 2010 volunteers!
We'd like to thank all the volunteers that have helped us establish one of the leading reconstruction organizations in Haiti! 32 design and construction professionals flew down to Port-au-Prince in 2010 on their own dime for anywhere between 3 weeks to 4 months to assist in Haitian reconstruction efforts. Thanks for everything guys–Haiti isn't an easy place to work and we applaud everyone who has dedicated their time and talents to helping Haiti fulfill its immense potential.
Stay completely up-to-date
1-Track the latest developments. Students Rebuild releases regular blog posts and videos through its Field Notes and Video Library–Students Rebuild is a great resource to for tracking architectural progress, as well as Haitian news, cultural highlights and features on youth-based support efforts from abroad.
2-Let the news come to you. Follow Students Rebuild on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube for real-time updates and our series of webumentaries from the Ground
3-Open Source through and through. Check out the Gro Kay Disko page for behind-the-scenes blips of the busy lives of our designers in Haiti.
4-Send a request to join the Haiti team email list. haitivolunteer@architecureforhumanity.org
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund announced on December 2nd its support for the Architecture for Humanity Rebuilding Center with a $800,000 grant. According to the press release, the grant will "enable small and growing Haitian businesses to participate in post-earthquake reconstruction and ensure rebuilding incorporates better design and engineering."
The Rebuilding Center is a program incorporating Architecture for Humanity's wisdom in disaster recovery–developed in successful programs responding to Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Indonesian tsunami–to Haiti's redevelopment. The Center encompasses programs of professional training, construction financing, design & construction services, and the Haiti School Initiative.
Architecture for Humanity and CBHF really see eye-to-eye on the need to invest in a long-term recovery that includes professional development and empowerment for a more self-sufficient future.
Wrapping up CDs
Volunteers launched on a campaign to finish Phase 1 Construction Documents (for Pele, Dignité & Montrouis–the design for Home of Knowledge is still fluctuating a bit, and the soils survey hasn't come back yet). The Rebuilding Center is observing a Winter Break from December 18-January 5, to give our crew a break and chance to visit an English-speaking country. As many of our volunteers are geared to head home, and then on to other things, it's a good time to wrap projects up as much as possible beforehand–and have a gift for the new volunteer crew in 2011!
Surveys in
Over the past couple weeks, some consultant crews have been conducting surveys for each of the school sites–site documentation necessary before finalization of design. Two surveying crews are conducting topographic documentation, while a geotech crew is inspecting soil quality, for each of the four round 1 schools.
Demolition for Pele
Pele, the 1100-student school in Port-au-Prince, will need to undergo some demolition before construction begins. This is a tricky task, as huge machinery will have to navigate the campus and reduce fallen buildings during the school year! The headmaster at Pele considers the downsides worth suffering to begin construction on the new school blocks. The team is looking into whether a demo team can do the task during Pele's winter break–and thereby reducing their presence as much as possible–but need to investigate and compare contractor price tags first.
More team deets at Students Rebuild
The past weeks have been a period of connection and caution. With cholera affecting more of Haiti's poorest and least fortunate, followed by the heavy rains dropped by TS Tomas, our team is taking extra precaution in their day-to-day operations. Yet on a lighter note–or perhaps a glaringly-bright Haitian Sun note–October has also been chock-full of student-to-student video conferences and webcast thanks to tech-savvy Global Nomads Group for the Students Rebuild program. In addition, we've received generous dedicated support from Prudential to rebuild safe learning spaces, while the Rockefeller Brothers Fund have sponsored an 18-month Design Fellowship for an architect specializing in education to oversee development of at least ten schools in Haiti.
Students Rebuild update
Videoconferences, Webcasts, and Documentary Shorts–Students Rebuild partner Global Nomads Group has just wrapped up two weeks of documentaries and video conferences between Haitian students and 24 Students Rebuild teams across North America. This included a live webcast broadcast at studentsrebuild.org, and will be followed by two more sessions in 2011.
Gearing Up for the Holidays–With Thanksgiving (and the Haitian feast day of Manger Yam) just a few weeks away Students Rebuild is taking stock of the achievements and leadership of the student teams. If you're on Facebook, join the Students Rebuild Page and effortlessly receive the latest bulletins on philanthropic buzz and news from the ground; if you're Twitter-savvy, well, we are too.
Gensler assists in CAD training sessions
A series of professional training courses was launched in late October with a two-week session on AutoCAD for Haitian professionals and students in the design and construction industry. Kyle Miller from the San Francisco office of Gensler conducted the classes at the Rebuilding Center with the help of some dedicated laptops and copies of the AutoCAD Suite 2009 donated by Autodesk.
Design Fellows Expanding Efforts on the Ground
Our ground team has expanded to include two new design fellows–Darren Gill and Dave Hampton Jr. Darren is a familiar face to us at HQ. He just completed a stint in Uganda working on the Nakaseeta Academy and jumped at a second tour of duty in Haiti. Darren had previously spent time in Haiti over the past five years overseeing the construction of housing and school projects amongst other things. Dave has been brought on to work with a camp in Port-au-Prince seeking to resettle communities destroyed by the earthquake. Dave hails from Chicago where he spent the past few years co-founding and working for the nonprofit Urban Habitat Chicago alongside design work at Echo Studio.
Our USGBC Design Fellow Stacey McMahan can be found in Chicago next week speaking at the Greenbuild conference.
Volunteer team for Winter 2011 receiving invites
We're bringing on eight intrepid volunteers to kick off 2011 assisting the Rebuilding Center's various projects. The volunteers, carrying dozens of years of experience between them, will help consult on and develop projects. We are now looking for candidates who can donate 6 weeks to 6 months of their know-how and can-do for March and beyond.
Architecture for Humanity receives a healthy interest for Haiti volunteers. Due to realistic limits of capacity and security we cannot invite all the compassionate folks who want to help rebuild. Applicants who have not been selected are encouraged to stay involved, stay informed and help forge a new direction for our architectural conversation.
Haiti Team Seeking…
A construction manager responsible for construction oversight; an architect specializing in education to assist in the design and construction of primary and secondary schools; a structural engineer to assist on our school projects; and an urban planner to help address a wide range of urban design and community planning initiatives.
Project Update
Haitian Contractor Prequalification–The first step in a large construction operation in a foreign country is to "test the waters." The Rebuilding Center has been sending out prequalification packets to contracting companies wanting to build schools with Architecture for Humanity. Through this process we will get an accurate depiction of contractor considerations for building schools.
Schools funded through the Students Rebuild Haiti School Initiative
Bon Berger Montrouis - 70% Construction Documents
Bon Berger Pele - 80% Design Documents
Ecole La Dignite - 95% Design Documents
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 85% Design Documents
Co-funded schools and small buildings
Ceverine School - 60% Construction Administration
Ecole Mixte de Nancy - entering Schematic Design
Ecole Elie Dubois - Schematic Design
Digicel House for Woodline - 75% Construction Documents
Digicel House for Odeline - 75% Construction Documents
More details are available as always on the Haiti Reconstruction Page, as well as the Students Rebuild Field Notes.
As we're carving our turkeys, tofurkeys and barbecued goat, know that we'll be thanking each one of you for your continuing support. Cheers!
The Haiti Team
Since the earthquake, the Haitian Ministry of Education and Professional Training* has dedicated itself to making dramatic reforms to the standards by which schools around the country should be built. These standards (entitled "Normes de construction scolaires," or School Construction Standards) include specifications for proper, sanitary washrooms, handicap accessiblity and restrictions on building size and layout. A draft was released by the Ministry last spring that proposed some ambitious reforms. At first blush these new standards seem very reasonable, however, as discussed in a post last July, they were in fact very unrealistic–given the common conditions for Haitian schools. For instance, specifying a light bulb for each toilet stall is an unrealistic specification for a school without electricity, running water and barely enough money to make hot lunch. The first draft received some harsh criticism and the Ministry promised a second draft by October.
Although a little behind schedule, the MENFP has just now released the revised standards–rather unceremoniously posted on One Response, a website assisting in humantarian aid response by consolidating documents and infomation pertaining to Haiti's reconstruction.
Clocking in at 35 pages of of specs in French, the document promises to be the authority by which schools should be built in Haiti. Our team is going through them right now (well, the ones who read French). The Direction du Génie scolaire (DGS: the managing school directors) is set to meet and review the standards on Thursday, indicating the possibiity for further edits.
*in French, le Ministère de l'Education nationale et de Formation professionnelle, or, as you'll more likely see it, the MENFP
Ceverine School Under Construction
Architecture for Humanity recently broke ground on the Ceverine school in Maissade, Haiti. The school presents many challenges common in Haiti: an extremely remote, rural site, as well as a lack of basic services such as water and electricity. Architecture for Humanity faced the additional challenge of addressing an existing school block which had been constructed poorly. The existing school block had been built on a raft foundation on a steep slope and had begun to slide. The kitchen was a small cramped shed made of wood, creating a fire hazard. The latrine was merely a pit with a concrete shell over it.
The Architecture for Humanity team engaged the services of a local contractor and set to work to not only repair the existing damage but to expand the school with two additional classrooms, a new kitchen and composting latrine. The team was assisted by a team of U.S. volunteers including Tommy Stewart, the American Institute of Architects and the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Construction is proceeding using a large team of laborers from the Maissade community and we expect to be completed in early October. The Ceverine School will serve 260 students in four retrofit classrooms and two newly-built classrooms. More information can be found at Ceverine's project page on the Open Architecture Network.
StudentsRebuild Features First Round of Grant Candidates
We've been working on several projects over the summer, some of whom are seeking independent funding and have applied for the Haiti School Initiative Grant offered by StudentsRebuild. Four schools are in contention for this first round, and are featured in full on the StudentsRebuild Build Schools page. Review the candidates (from the Build Schools page)
École Baptiste Bon Berger ''Good Shepherd,'' Pele (Port-au-Prince) - 1100 students to phase into a 20-classroom campus.
Funds requested: $300,000
View Good Shepherd's grant application
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - 300 students need a new building as the old is not structurally sound.
Funds requested: $50,000
View Bon Berger's grant application
Institut Foyer du Savoir, Delmas 31 (Port-au-Prince) - 300 students now to go a converted house for classes.
Funds requested: up to $150,000
View the Institute's grant application
École La Dignité de Pétavy, Cayes-Jacmel - school of 227 students seeking to augment secondary school program into two-classroom expansion.
Funds requested: $70,000
View La Dignité's grant application
Featured School: Elie Dubois
Architecture for Humanity is currently working to renovate and expand the program of the historic Elie Dubois school in downtown Port-au-Prince. Elie Dubois, located just a few blocks from the presidential palace, opened in 1913 as an all-girls vocational school. Over time the program and admittance expanded but the combination of basic and professional curriculum remains. During the earthquake, several of the newer structures on campus collapsed but the historic buildings only suffered minimal damage.
As a combination of historic renovation and new construction, we're seeking a balance of historically-sensitive retrofit and respectful-yet-contrasting new school blocks and dormitory for the resident nuns. The project will also incorporate sustainable strategies while allowing space for vocational students to regularly sell their wares. We recently assembled a presentation document with site and phasing analyses and preliminary designs which are available for perusal on the Elie Dubois page of the Open Architecture Network.
Global Nomads Group Gets ''Reception'' in Port-au-Prince
Intrepid members of Global Nomads Group are making their second post-quake visit to Haiti to meet with schools hosting StudentsRebuild video conferences with North American schools. The team will meet with teachers and administrators to introduce the equipment and coordinate logistics. In most cases, broadcasting and projection equipment will by powered by diesel generators (that by this time next year may well be replaced by a photovoltaic array or compact wind turbines).
The first visit GNG made was last April, where they investigated schools with local architect Yves Francois. You can check out their suite of Haiti videos online. The video conference sessions are scheduled for two week periods in October, February and May, corresponding with the StudentsRebuild Haiti curriculum.
AfH Helps Tent Camp & Clinic Recover from Sudden Storm
On Friday, September 27, a storm formed without warning over Port-au-Prince. Fifteen minutes of heavy winds and rains wreaked havoc on the city, toppling thousands of relief tents and hundreds of larger structures, flooding relief camps up to the knees and killing at least five people. This may be the first real disaster out of this year's hurricane season, demonstrating just how vulnerable relief shelter in Port-au-Prince is to a Haitian storm.
Our team received a note from some good friends at a relief camp we had helped stabilize earlier this year. The field hospital had suffered damages and needed assistance getting back online. Our full team of staff and volunteers (currently 12 folks) reported for duty early Saturday morning to lend a hand. The storm had destroyed several of the clinic tents–including the hospital, x-ray and office tents–but the platforms we had built for the women's clinic were in great shape and had helped shelter many of the clinic staff and camp residents. After a few hours, debris was cleared and equipment moved to safety. The clinic will be just fine; no one was hurt from the storm. But plenty of other Haitians weren't so lucky, and we left with a reminder of the ever-dynamic and at times threatening, conditions on the ground.
Transitional Shelter Analysis Released
An analysis on the condition of and future dependence on foreign aid transitional shelters (''T-shelters'') in Haiti was recently compiled and presented by Architecture for Humanity to partners in Haitian reconstruction.
The 51-page report examines and compares 10 emergency shelter types currently housing thousands of Haitians in Port-au-Prince, Léogâne and Papette. The report rates components for longevity, adaptability and satisfaction of users' needs amongst other criteria.
Transitional shelters are in wide use in Haiti as a fast, semi-permanent housing solution while permanent housing construction gets underway. Refugees in most post-disaster situations can expect to live transitionally for several years. This time frame may be extended in Haiti due to the delicate state of the land tenure archive and restricted access to construction materials.
A summary of the t-shelter report can be downloaded here, with more details on the Haiti Reconstruction
Part of working in Haiti is dropping what you're doing at a moment's notice to help friends in need. Last Friday a storm formed without warning over Port-au-Prince. Fifteen minutes of heavy winds and rains wreaked havoc on the city, destroying thousands of tents and hundreds of larger structures, flooding relief camps up to the knees and killing at least five people. This may be the first real disaster out of this year's hurricane season, demonstrating just how vulnerable relief shelter in Port-au-Prince is to a Haitian storm.
Our team made it out all right–some folks were caught on the road in SUVs but came back to the Maison no worse for wear.
The JP HRO camp may have shared our good fortune, depending on how you look at it. We helped the Health Relief Organization last spring build platforms for their clinic and women's clinic and have been close ever since. During Friday's storm several of the clinic tents–including the office, the x-ray tent and the Big White Tent, buckled and collapsed. Some folks sought shelter in the platformed structures which weathered the storm very well.
Our full team of staff and volunteers reported to the camp for duty Saturday morning. Within a matter of hours the debris from the camp was cleared and the surviving equipment moved to a newly-acquired permanent building. The storm may have hobbled JP, but they will soon bounce back into full action. Thankfully not all was lost. JP was grateful that, with the help of Architecture for Humanity, they have a foundation from which to recover the clinic, and that no one was hurt.
An analysis on the condition of and future dependence on foreign aid transitional shelters ("T-shelters") in Haiti was recently compiled and presented by Architecture for Humanity to partners in Haitian reconstruction.
The 51-page report examines and compares 10 emergency shelter types currently housing thousands of Haitians in Port-au-Prince, Leogane and Papette. The report rates components for longevity, adaptability and satisfaction of users' needs amongst other criteria.
Transitional shelters are in wide use in Haiti as a fast, semi-permanent housing solution while permanent housing construction gets underway. Refugees in most post-disaster situations can expect to live transitionally for several years. This time frame may be extended in Haiti due to the delicate state of the land tenure archive and restricted access to construction materials.
The full presentation pdf can be downloaded here, with more details on the Haiti Reconstruction page of the Open Architecture Network.
Architecture for Humanity recently broke ground on the Ceverine school in Maissade, Haiti. The school presents many challenges common in Haiti: an extremely remote, rural site, as well as a lack of basic services such as water and electricity. Architecture for Humanity faced the additional challenge of addressing an existing school block which had been constructed poorly. The existing school block had been built on a raft foundation on a steep slope and had begun to slide. The kitchen was a small cramped shed made of wood, creating a fire hazard. The latrine was merely a pit with a concrete shell over it.
The Architecture for Humanity team engaged the services of a local contractor and set to work to not only repair the existing damage but to expand the school with two additional classrooms, a new kitchen and composting latrine. The team was assisted by a team of U.S. volunteers including Tommy Stewart, the American Institute of Architects and the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Construction is proceeding using a large team of laborers from the Maissade community and we expect to be completed in early October.
The Ceverine School will serve 260 students in four retrofit classrooms and two newly-built classrooms. More information can be found at Ceverine's project page on the Open Architecture Network.
Going LEED in Haiti may be easier than you think. Last Friday, at the Rebuilding Center's second Meet n Greet (official name still pending), our LEED Design Fellow Stacey McMahan hosted a conversation among Haitian professionals about the applicability of sustainable building techniques to Haitian construction and culture. The concensus was: Haitians are effortlessly energy efficient.
But does that make Haiti right for LEED? LEED is a rating system that's quickly becoming an industry standard for sustainable building design in the developed world. It outlines steps to make buildings use fewer resources and rates projects on their efficiency and sensitivity to local climate by awarding them medals, basically. Bronze, Silver, Gold and, for the extremely "green" projects, PLatiNUm. LEED emphasizes the science of the architecture/engineering/construction world, suggesting techniques that most buildings could adopt to be more environmentally responsible.
The LEED rating checklist is broken up into several categories, in which Haitian buildings may have a natural advantage...or an extreme disadvantage. Here are some areas where Haitian construction comes out on top:
+WATER EFFICIENCY (minimizing potable water use)
Haitians don't rely on municipal plumbing for all their water needs. In most cases they use non-potable water for bathing and toilets which they collect from rainfall and pump up to water barrels on the roof. Also, landscapes demand less water as they're almost always planted with native species. Only banks keep irrigated lawns.
+ENERGY (optimizing energy use & renewable energy)
Mechanical and electrical systems are simple. Spaces are usually conditioned with fans and lit by the sun, though air conditioning and lights are common. Heat is not needed.
+MATERIALS & RESOURCES (using recycled and rapidly-renewable building materials)
Recycling is an inherent cultural practice–Haitians are very resourceful and reuse almost everything.
...However there are other severe limitations to Haitian buildings:
-SUSTAINABLE SITES (picking a site that minimized environmental impact and is accessible to public transportation)
Public transit in Haiti is an elusive concept. There are the tap-taps, but those are run and owned by private drivers, so they're more like mass-taxis than city buses. Bicycles are nonexistent in Port-au-Prince as the road conditions and traffic make the unusable.
-ENERGY
Because the electrical grid in Haiti is so unreliable, people often depend on diesel generators as backup or primary power sources. Solar panels are hard to come by, though there are several photovoltaic companies based in the Dominican Republic next door.
-MATERIALS & RESOURCES
Very few materials can be found locally. Waste management system is very weak and precludes proper disposal. Most garbage in Haiti is discarded randomly or burned.
-INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (clean, comfortable air in indoor spaces through filtration, low-toxicity and natural comfort)
Available finish materials (ie paints, glues and varnishes that coat indoor surfaces) are old school. There are few low-VOC materials options that release fewer toxins in the air.
It's true that LEED was developed for United States quality of life–the highest expectations in the world that bring with them a more expensive way of life in regards to resource consumption. So LEED is very country-specific. Even Canada had modifications to their LEED system to better suit their particular needs.
On top of that, many LEED credits are based on cost, which is still an unknown variable in Haitian reconstruction.
There are some insurmountable challenges, at least in the immediate future. Haiti's weak infrastructural system means few points could be counted for public transit (tap taps are a private venture), and systems like waste management and electricity would need a lot of attention before LEED could even be able to talk about them. It would seem then that a modified LEED rating system would have to be developed for Haiti. And that's no small undertaking.
New Office Space and 1st monthly Meet n Greet
Friday night July 30 saw Architecture for Humanity staff and volunteers talking shop with Haitian architects, builders, college faculty and fellow NGO's. They were celebrating, in part, their new office space in Pétionville, Port-au-Prince. Curious third-partiers joined around 50 invited members of the local design and construction community in enjoying some hors d'oeurves, a beverage and each other's company. Decorations were sparse–folding chairs had been drawn into circles while a projector reenacted the construction of the clinic platform. A small stereo played a hodgepodge of Haitian standards, but was mostly drowned out by conversation.
The inaugural ''Meet-n-Greet'' marked the first in an ongoing series of open houses at the Haiti team office. Monthly conversations and lectures are planned to promote education, participation and collaboration in Haiti's reconstruction.
Contact haitirebuild@architectureforhumanity.org to schedule appointments at the office in Pétionville. Meet n Greets are scheduled for the last Friday of every month.
StudentsRebuild Update
Monday August 23 marked the closing for first round applications to the Haiti Schools Initiative Grant through StudentsRebuild.
Middle and high school teams across and beyond North America are now in their fourth month of fundraising for Haitian school construction–funds to be matched 1:1 by the Bezos Family Foundation. The student teams are now ready to evaluate the applicant schools to select which will be awarded funding. Bios for the schools have been collected on the Haiti Schools Initiative Page. A short list will be whittled down for September and the new (North American) school year. The recipients will be announced by the start of Haiti's school year October 1. Stay tuned to the StudentsRebuild Field Notes blog for progress throughout the next month.
StudentsRebuild partners Global Nomads Group and Curriki are finalizing a year-long international curriculum on Haiti reconstruction. The curriculum's first year will cover aspects of culture, reconstruction, and international aid. Students at Haitian and international schools alike will be greatly rewarded by the content and video conferencing format.
Featured School: Good Shepherd of Montrouis
We were asked to inspect a school in Montrouis, a coastal town north of Port-au-Prince. College Mixte Bon Berger (''Good Shepherd School'') is a six classroom, 12-grade school built just a few years ago that nevertheless must be entirely replaced. A new scheme is to include rain water catchment and handicap accessibility. View the design progress
Progress on Our Other School Designs
Severin School - Initial drawing set complete
Baptiste Bon Berger - Preliminary design presented to community for review
Ecole La Dignite - Preliminary design
Architecture for Humanity is raising the standards of school construction in Haiti. The School Value Cost Analysis discusses differences between the Old School and the New School.
More on the Old School
Recent survey of materials prices
Haiti Team Welcomes Design Fellow Stacey McMahan
Monday August 9 was the first day in Port-au-Prince for Stacey McMahan, our USGBC Design Fellow. As Principal and Green Studio Director at Koch Hazard, Stacey has worked on a wide variety of projects, dedicated to creating energy efficient and high performance buildings. She helped create two green non-profits and is the editor of the AIA South Dakota Chapter magazine. Stacey received her Bachelor of Architecture from Kansas State University and is also LEED accredited and a member of the AIA. Stacey will be working with Architecture for Humanity for the next year incorporating sustainable principles into our Haitian schools–awesome.
Seeking to expand our team
We're expanding our team, seeking a Mac-Guyver-esque Design Fellow to work alongside a partner NGO to head any number of design challenges including tent and shelter raising, disaster and flood mitigation, micro-urban planning, community outreach, schematic design, preparing construction documents, skills training and construction supervision. Got a trusty pocket knife?
We are also looking for someone to be a Haiti school design fellow, someone with knowledge of Haitian vernacular building methods and a command of Haitian Creole. This person will be working very closely with a rural community on several school projects. Ou renmen vwazen ou yo?
AIDG and AfH bring masons and surveyors to Isle de La Gonave
August saw our friends at the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group bringing masons out to the remote island of La Gonave in the Gulf of La Gonave. The team will conduct mason training sessions on the arid island home to 90,000 Haitians. Residents of La Gonave and local nonprofit organizations such as AAEnfants have expressed concern for the neglect they've received to date in the international disaster response effort.
AIDG's two-day mason workshops instruct 30-person groups on: building shape and size, openings and overhangs, reinforcement, block making, material preparation, placement of electrical and plumbing piping, repairs, informal testing, and rules of thumb through instruction by engineers and masons, diagrammed literature and hands-on demonstration. Architecture for Humanity sponsored a series of training sessions last spring.
AAEnfants conducts an ambitious program on La Gonave which includes regular English and computer training courses held in Anse-a-Gallets. Visit their website to learn more about their organization and what they need to bring self-sufficiency and a tuition-free private school to the island.
Volunteering
Folks interested in volunteering in Haiti should skim our Volunteer Overview before filling out our Application Form.
To subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) the Haiti Progress Report, send a note to haitivolunteer@architectureforhumanity.org. See you in September!
Typically you can describe a simple, two-room school house in maybe two dozen "sheets." These sheets would include drawings and specifications of: site, floor and ceiling plans; interior and exterior elevations; electrical, plumbing and material specs; window and door schedules; SECTIONS; and a suite of details cataloging every material connection in the–achem–joint, and every possible measurement is labeled. These sheets become the explicit instructions so someone can build the whole school.
Give it up for Haitian contractors then for saving trees by fitting all these instructions ON TWO PAGES. That's right, the image above shows the entire drawing set for a two-room school extension–and this is standard practice amongst Haitian contractors.
But what are we actually looking at here? Do the roughed-out line drawings betray gross irresponsibility on the part of the Haitian building profession? Or are building instructions simply…simpler there? If a contractor knows already how every building in his career will be raised and with what materials (concrete block, of course!), then a set of architectural drawings plays a much smaller role in the whole process.
Leading up to the earthquake, building craftsmanship in Haiti went largely unregulated. It's customary to stake the fortunes of a building on the builder's reputation. A school we investigated a few weeks back was only two years old but our structural engineer declared it unfit to occupy.
Haiti cannot avoid now the glare of international scrutiny. When architectural drawing sets serve as legal documents as they do in the investing nations of the world, and when these nations have as large an investment in Haiti's recovery as they do, and we all want to see the safe, stable and thorough recovery Haiti deserves, then the humble construction practices of yesteryear will slowly be replaced by a more deliberate construction process. This process will take more money of course, but if things go right, that money lands in the hands of several sectors of the Haitian economy–which is the whole point of recovery anyway, right?
To read more about Haitian construction expectations, download our School Value Cost Analysis from the Open Architecture Network. This report is brought to you by
Every once in a while we feel compelled to try to be less discouraged about construction material prices in Haiti. This of course requires a trip to MSC–the only massive hardware store that associates price tags with all their products. MSC seems based on Home Depot, but...is so different. They have aisles for water tanks (for gravity-fed showers and faucets) and transformers (because you have to take your neighborhood's power needs into your own hands?). But I'm here for three things: equipment for our new office space, rakes for yard work, and an update on lumber pricing. A harrowing excursion to be sure, especially seeing as it requires a trip down Rte Frere to cross town.
Rte Frere, for those who don't know, is basically an endless sidewalk market–meaning a potentially 4 lane road is reduced to 2 lanes and a lot of brilliant cacophony. After a couple forks and a powder-blue-helmet-swarming UN staging zone, it's an open road to MSC–the first place I've seen a manicured lawn in three weeks. Here's the breakdown of the prices over our three investigations. I think the results are promising…
Prices there are in USD…and there were a lot of American contractor types and Brazilian UN officers wandering around. I also bought a cheap ball pump and a can of Pringles that came in handy waiting for the exit attendant to check the purchase, item-by-item, of three cartloads/a 5-ft-long receipt of an NGO group in front of me.
Item: July 31 price (April 28 price)
125 gallon tank: US $130.00
Solar water heater $559.00
Ceiling fan assembly $219.00
Oak door 30x80 $150.00
Sheet of corrugated plastic $15.50
3/4" treated plywood $57.00 (from $54.00)
3/4" plywood $40.00 (from $45.00 april 28 and $25.00 march 9)
1/2" plywood $31.00 (from $36.00)
5/8" plywood $43.50 (from $43.50)
lumber 1x6x16' $9.60
lumber 1x8x16' $14.00
lumber 1x12x14' $20.00 (from $25.00 @ 16')
lumber 2x3x16' $12.00
lumber 2x6x14' $16.00
lumber 2x8x14' $17.50
lumber 2x8x16' $20.50
lumber 4x6x16' pressure treated $40.00
Friday night saw Architecture for Humanity staff and volunteers talking shop with Haitian architects, builders, college faculty and fellow NGO's. They were celebrating, in part, their new office space in Pétionville, Port-au-Prince. Curious third partiers joined around 50 invited members of the local design and construction community in enjoying some hors d'oeurves, a beverage and each other's company. Decorations were sparse–folding chairs had been drawn into circles while a projector reenacted the construction of the clinic platform. A small stereo played a hodgepodge of Haitian standards, but was mostly drowned out by conversation.
The inaugural "Meet and Greet" marked the first in an ongoing series of open houses at the Haiti team office. Monthly conversations and lectures are planned to promote education, participation and collaboration in Haiti's reconstruction.
Last night our dedicated volunteers convened for a design review of four schools on our project board. Attentive–and somewhat fatigued–participants and guests assembled in the Gro Kay Disko living room to share ideas. Megan Roy, Haiti team member four weeks standing, reflects on the review:
The bunk room at the Architecture for Humanity house in the hills of Petionville is currently overflowing with summer volunteers, mostly graduate architecture students who will be returning to school in a few short weeks. As another volunteer and I compared our drastically different design solutions for the rural Good Samaritan school yesterday over lunch, Eric decided that a late night design review was much overdue!
Especially as we had special guests in the house. Tommy, a practicing architect from Texas and close friend of the Maison, had just flown in that day. He had a lot of input that was greatly appreciated by those of us still struggling with structural details. Kate, the Haiti team head honcho, also just arrived, and was able to suggest useful precedents from the Open Architecture Network.
As we crowded around the living room table, laptops, Nalgene bottles and trace paper competed for space. We shared our progress one by one, and discussed how to continue pushing forward despite the not-yet-approved Ministry Standards for school design. My biggest challenge has been fitting enough classroom space for 220 students on a very small and slopping site, while still maintaining one story and north/south orientation. The session could have easily continued into the night, but there were Skype dates waiting, pets to be fed, and laundry to be washed. So we convened at a reasonable time, saving some work for the next day!
Thanks Megan–hope it's going well!
After the six month anniversary of the earthquake, reports turned up announcing a stunning lack of progress in Haiti's reconstruction. Meanwhile, Architecture for Humanity, in the capacity of a Haiti Rebuilding Center, continues steadily on its pursuit to oversee construction and operation of at least 20 permanent schools, to serve as a one-stop shop for technical assistance, education and training for Haitian building owners and construction and design professionals, and to transfer all operations to Haitian hands after five years. There's a lot to do.
Haiti School Initiative
We have begun schematic design for these permanent schools (follow links to project details on the Open Architecture Network):
Baptiste d'Anton, Saut-d'Eau, Centre, with Concern Worldwide. Remote school at least 45 minutes on foot from nearest road. Exploration of site-sourced materials and rural construction methods. 340 students require a 7 classroom school.
Good Samaritan, Saut-d'Eau, Centre, with Concern Worldwide. 220 students need a school to replace the shabby conditions of the original, including the addition of a library, a kitchen and a latrine/bathroom block.
Ecole Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele, Port-au-Prince, Ouest. A two-storey critically damaged school requires a replacement with improved ventilation and sanitary restrooms.
We have conducted preliminary site visits for the following schools with submitted RFP's:
Ecole Dignite, Cayes de Jacmel, Sud-est. Free private school serving 227 students seeks to expand by 90 secondary school students, requiring a two-classroom expansion.
Institut foyer du savoir, Delmas 75, Port-au-Prince, Ouest. 200 student school to expand to 300 students over five years. Searching for new site to support timber frame structure.
Our RFP survey/grant application is available online in French, Creole and English.
StudentsRebuild.org has to date assembled 99 teams of middle and high school students from 7 countries and 21 states raising over $100,000 toward the construction of permanent schools in Haiti! Architecture for Humanity is partnering with Curriki and the Global Nomads Group to write a year-long curriculum on Haiti and its reconstruction. StudentsRebuild is coordinating the curriculum with interactive video conferences related professions and Haitian students. Expect to see the curriculum on Curriki in the near future!
Haiti Rebuilding Center
The Haiti Rebuilding Center is hosting our first of a series of networking events for Haitian builders and architects–a chance to connect with local professionals and for them to connect with each other. The event will be hosted at our new office space in Pétionville. If you're in Port-au-Prince the evening of July 30th, let us know and stop on by!
Our volunteer program has been augmented. Here are the basics: we're looking for design and construction savvy folks who can donate at least three, preferably four, weeks of time to volunteer on our various school and reconstruction projects. Volunteers stay for free at the Maison but must cover air fare, food and misc expenses while they're here. We're hard at work on a lot of projects in multiple design phases, and volunteers can expect some spontaneous assignments and travel within Haiti. Check out more information at the Haiti Volunteer Portal on the Open Architecture Network. Interested parties must fill out the Haiti Volunteer Application Form and submit a resume/work samples to haitivolunteer@architectureforhumanity.org for consideration. We're looking forward to working with energetic and compassionate designers and builders!
Follow updates on StudentsRebuild and the Haiti Reconstruction page on the Open Architecture Network.
(You can now follow the newly-christened ''Gro Kay Disko'' on facebook!) What's a Gro Kay Disko?
Contribute to helping Haitians rebuild their education system and professional construction expertise and ensure the healthy recovery of the nation.
To unsubscribe to our newsletters, please send a note to haitivolunteer@architectureforhumanity.org and we'll take you off our list.
Several organizations assembled Monday morning on a shady patio in Port-au-Prince to discuss a series of reactions to the new school construction standards released by the Haitian Ministry of Education in May (download the English translation here)(or the original document in French). This is the School Standards sub-group [of the UN Education Cluster] dedicated to the standards' review–sitting in the back yard of PARQE–"Programme d'appui au renforcement de la qualité de l'education" ("Program to support the strengthening of quality in education"). An air conditioner unit and a colony of unseen insects jostled for control of the ambiance. Somebody asked, in broken French, for the chairwoman to speak up. The group edged their ring of chairs closer. Then a shared expression passed over the listening faces of the attendees. It wasn't positive: the Haiti school standards would not be released by the Ministry until the end of September.
The implications are huge. Permanent school construction cannot begin until the standards are nailed down. This means that the school year will begin with students, parents and communities wondering when signs of normal life will begin to flourish.. There is still the possibility that transitional schools can be built–structures light enough to be disassembled when the permanent structures come online. However this possibility needs to be presented to the Ministry for approval.
It's understandable why the standards would be postponed. On one hand, the Haitian government is trying to coordinate school standards with regional seismic needs…which cannot happen until the country is mapped and rated for seismic hazards.
On the other hand, there are a lot of problems with the first draft of the standards. This week marks a series of meetings confirming a review of the standards that many feel to be inconsistent, inflexible or unrealistic. A synopsis compiled by Melissa Arcand of Article 25 covers these points.
Land acquisition - many existing and fallen schools, especially in urban areas, have sites smaller than specified by the standards. Schools accommodating 100-300 children were on plots of 415m2-1800m2. The draft of the standards require 2500m2.
Electricity - The requirement of artificial lighting is unrealistic, especially considering how Haitian infrastructure allows on average 6 hours of electricity per day, how classes are only held in the daytime and how many schools are not even connected to an electrical grid.
Washrooms - the specified size of a toilet cubicle (3 m2) is double what's required by international standards (1.35 m2)–even larger than universally accessible cubicles (2.25 m2). Plumbing itself is not a reality for many Haitian schools.
Circulation - the standards require a funky set of measurements for hallways and doorways, including the requirement of classroom doors to be 1.2m (nearly 4 ft!) wide–a door this size would be very heavy for students to open and for carpenters to hang. A reconsideration of this dimension is requested.
Generally, Article 25 is indicating that the Ministry could be more flexible in their standards writing. Variables such as school and classroom size, accessibility to infrastructure and connection to preexisting school sites (and the communities they served) should be considered in the next draft, and at least a variance system could be put in place.
Many aid groups are questioning why the Ministry doesn't simply adopt Caribbean standards as a starting point that the Haitians can expand on as needed.
The meeting adjourned with an overall sense of frustration. Forces out of their control or preventing the construction of schools Haitian children desperately need. Perhaps transitional schools can mitigate this delay. Flexibility will be required, both on part of the Haitian Education Ministry and the organizations supporting school reconstruction to ensure that as little time possible is lost for the education of students without schools.
The above and other points are expanded upon in Arcand's comments. A pdf of the comments can be found here.
Several members of the Haiti team revisited Good Shepherd, a small community school near Cité Soleil, on Monday to present schematic designs and charrette with several teachers, the school director and members of the Child Sponsorship Program.
The Team presented preliminary designs for review. The school is rather large, 1100 students, and requires the construction of 20 classrooms. The design proposes a permanent school to be phased in room by room while children are attending class throughout the next school year. Presently classes are being held in the church and under a series of tents.
Also included in the design is an on-campus dormitory for instructors. During the charrette, teachers voiced the need to make the school yard visible from their dormitory rooms. However, according to a released draft of school standards from the Ministry of Education, new school construction cannot exceed two storeys. The exact placement of the various buildings on-site becomes an issue of particular finesse.
The Team invited concerned instructors to accompany them to the upcoming School Standards twig meeting. A twig group is a sub-group of a UN relief Cluster group–in this case the Education Cluster has a twig dedicated to the new school standards review. Next week's meeting will discuss issues with the standards before they are finalized next month.
The Team was able to meet with teachers and staff after the the morning session had ended. Haitian students attend class in the mornings and head home before lunch. Presently classes across Haiti are still in session, as the Spring semester this year ends in September. School will resume in October after a month's recess.
Architecture for Humanity accompanies Haitian architect Yves François on his daily commute along two miles of Route Frère--a trip that routinely takes 30-90 minutes! The team investigates the cause of congestion and wonders how circulation along this main artery can be improved.
Howdy Folks
May delivered a predictably unpredictable melange of news for Haiti and our crew working on the ground. The hazards of rain became critical for work as well as that of our ever-growing community of NGO's. But we've had an equal share of pleasant surprises and promising developments.
SCHOOL PROGRESS IN PAP
We are on track to open the first phase of an ambitious secondary school campus for children of Cité Soleil, one of the largest slums in the world, located in Port-au-Prince. The campus, to be run by a long-time Haitian community activist and champion of children's health in Cité Soleil, is planned to be the largest secondary school in the city. It will play a leading role bringing older children back to school, as very few of them would complete secondary school before the quake.
The ground team has conducted soils studies while HQ has been working on the multi-phase master plan. The project, sited on 10 acres is looking at a 3,700 m2 program with the first phase slated to open in October. Visit the Cité Soleil Campus page for more information.
TEAM HELPS BUILD WOMEN'S CLINIC PLATFORM
This last week a women's clinic in the community of Pétionville got a face lift. Or rather a floor lift. Our team was on site helping build a platform for the clinic, which was under threat of flooding as the structures were set up on the bare ground. Completion was delayed several days due to rain but the clinic is now operating at a higher level. Photos of the projects are on our Haiti Rebuilding page on the Open Architecture Network.
DESIGN FELLOWS, DESIGN FELLOWS
Architecture for Humanity welcomes Lyndia Mesidor, who joined our team early last month as the newest Design Fellow on our Port-au-Prince team. Lyndia was born in Montreal Canada to two Haitian parents and grew up in Miami, Florida. She initially came to Haiti for three months to help Haitian architect Yves Francois (see below), where she met the AfH team and was asked to stick around. Lyndia decided to put off grad school to work with the Haiti as a design fellow. We're excited to have her working with us in Port-au-Prince.
We still have design fellow position open for those with green design experience and a command of Haitian Creole. Check out the job board for more information!
AFH TRANSITIONAL/LOCAL PROPOSAL REACHES UN WEBSITE
AfH had developed a transitional school scheme relying on locally-sourced materials. The project has been featured on the United Nations cluster resource site One Response as a downloadable pdf. Transitional school OAN page
THE BUILD BACK BETTER COMMUNITIES (BBBC) PREFAB EXPO RFP
If you've got a prefab design you think would be excellent in Haiti, then this RFP is for you! The Government of Haiti has enlisted the help of AfH and British architecture firm Malcolm Reading to hold a design competition Expo for prefabricated housing solutions. The RFP calls out to housing manufacturers, contractors, material suppliers, NGOs, construction consutlants, architects, designers and others to submit prefab designs for consideration for Exposition at a site outside Port-au-Prince, for immediate evaluation and construction. The Expo is set to launch in October and requires designs submitted by Friday, June 25. The RFP is currently going through final approval with the Government of Haiti and will be release in the next few days. Direct queries to BBBC@malcolmreading.co.uk
VOLUNTEERING IN PORT-AU-PRINCE
The Port-au-Prince team has begun accepting volunteers to help our efforts–at this point we've recruited a handful of folks gracious enough to lend their time and expertise.
We can only run a small volunteer force at the moment. We are looking for individuals with experience building in post-disaster situations and licensed professionals. Volunteers stay at the Maison, but they must cover their travel and living expenses.
For those who have submitted applications we ask for patience as we cross-check applicants with our evolving needs.
Tommy Stewart, AIA AICP LEED AP, of Ft Worth, has been with us on the ground for the past five weeks providing incredible help, wisdom and enthusiasm for our projects, and giving his own personal training coursed on stair and platform framing! On behalf of the Haiti team, many profound thanks Tommy!
Those interested on volunteering should fill out our volunteer application form to be reviewed by our team in Port-au-Prince. Again, we are being very selective, so do not get discouraged if you are not selected to work with us. If your thirst to help Haiti goes unabated you may want to investigate Hands on Disaster Response and similar organizations who with a larger capacity for volunteers. Also: join your local AfH chapter, as we will begin coordinating Haiti design projects with our chapter network!
Please direct your inquiries to haitivolunteer@architectureforhumanity.org
IN THE NEWS
Check out June's Architectural Record for a write-up on Haiti and a featurette on our Haiti team, an Architectural Record interview with team member and Haitian architect Yves Francois, as well as the June 2010 A+U for an Architecture for Humanity essay on the ongoing work in Haiti!
For more of our work, be sure to visit the Reconstruction page We also post regular updates on StudentsRebuild. Thanks everyone for your continued interest and compassion!
The Haiti Team
Architecture for Humanity
A cadre of engineers from the San Francisco office of Arup–an international multi-disciplinary consulting firm–recently sat with Architecture for Humanity to discuss the technical aspects of a school campus design for Haiti. In the course of an afternoon the two groups isolated some recommendations for: air and energy use, water and waste management, construction material choices, fire safety and structural needs for the peculiar local conditions in Port-au-Prince. The Architecture for Humanity Haiti program manager skyped in to catch the team up on conditions and design constraints on the ground.
This is the first of a suite of charrettes (sweet!) between the two groups as they hone a set of best practices for construction in Haiti. The results of this collaboration will be featured online on the Open Architecture Network.
We just got a message from Malcolm Reading, the consulting firm organizing Haiti's Prefab Housing Expo "Building Back Better Communities:"
Dear All,
Thank you for your interest in the Building Back Better Communities project in Haiti.
Due to high levels of interest we are extending the deadline for Stage 1 submissions to 12:00 EDT on Monday July 5, 2010.
The competition website, www.malcolmreading.co.uk/bbbc, which holds all the necessary information on the project, has been updated accordingly.
We look forward to continued interest from across the world.
Appropriate prefab solutions are invited to have their day in the Haitian sun: are you up to the challenge?
The Government of Haiti wants to provide alternative forms of permanent housing for its citizens displaced by the earthquake. Officials have enlisted our help and that of the British architecture firm Malcolm Reading to hold a design competition Expo for prefabricated housing solutions. The deadline for submissions is June 28.
The Haitian government encourages participation from as many different sectors around the world as possible. If you're a designer, architect, contractor, consultant or other professional who wants to help build back better, you're invited to submit a design to be evaluated and built.
A prototype housing Expo will take place in Port-au-Prince from early October 2010. The development of an exemplar housing settlement will follow shortly after.
We've talked before about transitional schools but by far the largest recovery effort in Haiti right now is transitional housing. "T-housing" is temporary buildings for folks waiting for any number of things precluding permanent construction.
An adviser from the United States Agency for International Development and Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA...what'd I tell you about soups!) visited our headquarters last week to give us the run-down on shelter relief in Haiti. There are more than a few misconceptions, as well as plenty of potential for great success of creative design solutions.
The first misconception is that any shelter is good shelter. Problems arise when people consider refugees housed in less-than-permanent shelters. For instance, the fastest shelters to go up this year were made of bedsheets–good protection from the sun but little help as the rains began in May. Donated tents turn out to be little better. While ideal for week-long camping trips, your standard nylon tent has a short lifespan–only a few months in strenuous conditions–and won't hold up to the stronger storms that Haiti can experience. USAID had to re-cover many donated tents with additional sheeting to keep water from spilling in.
Prefabricated solutions also carry more risks than you might think. A basic problem that goes overlooked is one of equity–if a prefab house (built in foreign factories and shipped or air-lifted to relief zones) is delivered to a family or a community, and other families and communities receive nothing, jealousy becomes a considerable problem.
But that's not to say these solutions should be ruled off the table. Some sturdier canvas structures offered by relief groups have been much more effective. And prefabricated solutions have so much potential for quick and sensitive relief that, with the introduction of enough units, a trend could develop a message of ongoing, and involved relief, and buck the trend of point-relief that some aid organizations have established in the past!
Another delay for reintroducing housing in cities like Port-au-Prince is that affordable transitional solutions (18m2/family for $2400) are right now limited to single story structures, and that a 2-story structure at the same price psf would be very popular by the relief efforts. If a design surfaced reconciling the structural and financial challenges of a 2-story transitional house, it could really take off and change the face of transitional relief housing forever.
For a proper recovery, Haiti should develop as self-sufficiently as possible. However most materials that go into Haiti construction, at least until the earthquake, were imported and difficult to manage. However there are materials in country, natural and native materials, that mean there's a strong possibility for having some traditional, familiar use in Haitian culture.
Thatch roofs are one such system. Our ground team has reported seeing thatch roofing used extensively in small buildings, especially in southern towns such as Jacmel. The primary material are fallen palm fronds from an abundant tree and, when woven correctly, can form a waterproof membrane to protect houses and their inhabitants. And while corrugated metal roofs, what you're used to seeing in practically ALL construction in Haiti these days, are light and inexpensive, thatch roofs can be even LESS expensive, AND they don't have downsides such as absorbing heat from the sun or being mind-bogglingly loud in rainstorms.
So why haven't thatch roofs become the #1 solution for Haiti's shelter problems? As you might imagine their weaknesses are crippling. First they're simply harder to make than buying a tin or metal sheet. But also, the hand-made fabrication is a craft that few people have--a skill that would have to be taught to a lot of folks, and re-perfected for each new master roofer. Last there's an issue of health, not to say the fronds themselves are unclean but perhaps the creatures that end up inhabiting them are more than what a typical building user would bargain for.
Still, the craft has enormous potential, and possibilities such as hybridizing thatch/sheet roofs should be explored as solutions maximizing economy, comfort and aesthetics.
Read more at StudentsRebuild
This last week a women's clinic in the community of Pétionville got a face lift. Or rather a floor lift. Our team was on site helping build a platform for the clinic supported by JP/HRO. The clinic was under threat of flooding as the structures were set up on the bare ground. Completion was delayed several days due to rain but the clinic is now operating at a higher level.
Last weekend, the Haiti team took a break from their work to help build a platform for the J/P HRO women's clinic in Pétionville, Port-au-Prince.
Last week, the Haiti's Education Ministry released a new set of standards for school construction. Our Haiti team has translated this document, which now lives on the OAN!
The document goes into some detail, discussing: required programs for primary and secondary schools and teacher training centers; construction specifications for all spaces: classrooms, lab rooms, washrooms, building accessibility; health and safety standards; room capacities and furnishings; dimensions of required furnishings.
As our projects develop past the schematic design phase, the complicated shipping issues become more and more real. The AfH team is researching best options for shipping. The import process through Haiti's ports is extremely complex and difficult to navigate, that's why organizations, like the UN Logistics Cluster, have initiated a large effort to facilitate transportation through Haiti's various ports. We can also look to the UN Logistics Cluster to find information about free and safe local transportation for humanitarian services.
(For more information about what the Logistics Cluster is doing, visit: Logistics Cluster: Operation Haiti: Sea + River Transport Documents.)
OneResponse has supplied a great resource: Tips for Customs Clearance for NGO's. It is basically a summary of a meeting between the NGO Coordination Support Office and the UN Logistics Cluster. Although we have found a multitude of information about companies that are shipping to Haiti successfully (DHL Express, Chatelain Cargo Services, Amerijet, Haiti International Forwarding, Antillean Shipping Line, Mediterranean Shipping Corporation, CMA-CGM, Zim Line, Maersk, Seaboard, Crowley Maritime, Hapag-Lloyd), which is a challenge in itself, we are still in the process of determining the final cost of shipping.
So far, we have found that it takes about 4 days at sea to ship from Miami to Port-au-Prince, and we received a rough estimate for the cost of shipping: 4,000 USD per shipping container. The cost of shipping can be approximated fairly accurately, but the entry fees into Haiti's ports are so high and inconsistent that it makes it difficult to estimate the true total cost of shipping. Once we find more information and resources about entry fees (how much they are, what to avoid, etc.), we can decide if relying on shipping from the US to Haiti is a viable option for us.
You know those Medieval village mock-ups at theme parks–those three-storey buildings with a pattern of crossing timbers on the walls? This is an actual construction method found all over Europe...and imported to Haiti during its period of colonization. In English it's described as half-timber framing, the French call it colombage, and the Haitians use the colloquial "pan de bois"–flanks of wood. This construction type has a lot of potential in Haiti's rebuilding for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that pan de bois houses survived the earthquake in remarkable numbers!
The Haiti team has begun conducting soils testing at our schools campus site. We've brought in a French team of soils experts who are taking core samples at the site. The tripod depicted helps drive a 10-20' pile into the Earth, which, when pulled out preserves the layers of soil students will soon be standing over. This core sample is taken to a makeshift soils lab elsewhere in Port-au-Prince, where the core samples, taken from around the site, are reviewed. The consistency of soil determines how deep foundations must go to support the school buildings. It will also determine how large the buildings can be, although that is less of a concern when all schools must be two or fewer storeys tall.
At the end of a several-week charrette and development process, Architecture for Humanity's Headquarters crew has submitted four schematic design proposals for the APJ campus. The proposals each address a complex set of issues, from an ambitious, well-defined program to ranges of interpreting community involvement, natural regeneration and economic and agricultural self-sufficiency.
April 28, 2010
Revived from last weeks frustrating shopping outing, Eric and Schendy once more braved the aisles...this time at the Haitian Home Depot. The didn't takes much home with them beyond their reconnaissance (prices in USD):
1x4x12' pressure-treated: $6.20
1x12x12': $15.75
1x12x16': $25.00
2x2x14': $5.60
4x4x10': $19.50
80 lb bag of readymix: $12.00
22 lb sack of gray grout: $11.00
22 lb sack of white grout: $12.00
Stanley hammer: $14.00
8" masonite: $8.50
5/8" plywood: $43.50
1/2" plywood: $36.00
3/4" plywood: $45.00
3/4" cdx treated plywood: $54.00
May 4, 2010
Haitian minimum wage is $5 US per day, and this is where you'll find unskilled labor. Skilled laborers, with the help of Oxfam and Mercy Corps' Cash for Work campaign, earn $10 per day.
The Cash for Work program originated as a means to infuse money into the Haitian economy by hiring help to clear rubble and clean relief camps. Oxfam is a collective of NGO's working together to reduce worldwide poverty and injustice. They have worked in Haiti distributing plastic sheets and toiletries to displaced Haitians, as well as financing local canteens and distributing locally-sourced food kits. Oxfam's Haiti Earthquake Response
Eric and Schendy went shopping the other day for bunk beds for the Maison. As the kitchen isn't yet fully equipped, the two wandered into the appliances section. Here are their findings:
$58 USD for a blender
$61 USD for an iron
$74 USD for a toaster oven
$210 USD for a 10-year-old fax machine
Perhaps some NGO's can afford to spend this kind of money, but our Haiti team prefers to live simply...until such time that gifts be brought by visitors. (The price of the extra checked baggage is comparatively reasonable!) Maybe we should start a registry...
Our Haiti team visited one of the interim camps being set up for displaced Haitians. Corail Cesselesse, opened two weeks ago, rests on a wide gravel flat 1.5 hours north of Port-au-Prince. Services are scarce and the cost of commuting to Port-au-Prince is sizable. At 30 Haitian dollars per round trip ticket, other options need to be found for setting up work, education and community activities closer to camp. Corail is currently home to 6000 Haitians and is growing by 500-1000 residents each day.
The standard unit of money in Haiti is the gourde (G). There are 5 gourdes to the Haitian dollar, and about 40 gourdes to the American dollar. So bus tickets cost around $3.75 US round trip–not a large sum unless you consider Haitian minimum wage is $40 Haitian (or $5 US) per day.
Images under Files tab
The U.S. National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (SDR) hosted a Workshop on Rebuilding for Resilience: How Science and Engineering Can Inform Haiti's Reconstruction. The workshop was held March 22-23 at the University of Miami, leading up to the international donors conference.
Our program manager visiting Port-au-Prince was able to spend time over the weekend exploring one of tent camps and getting some details on how school's being held there:
"I wandered through the large camp by the airport to take a few pictures. Several observations:
"The tents are pitched so closely together that it becomes impossible to get a sense of where you are; it's like being in a maze–the tents are tall enough to block out external reference points.
"Daily life goes on; I saw women getting their hair done; men shaving; lots of cooking taking place (which is becoming a huge issue–there's a drastic increase of burn victims).
"The kids in the 'schools' were seated on benches. No plywood flooring or mats - just all set on the ground. Small portable blackboards are sometimes provided. They have few notebooks and pencils, that I could see. Classes are held in the morning and are over by lunchtime.
"The heat under the school tents was stifling; it had to be several degrees above the external temperature. These blue tarps, seen everywhere, just hold the heat."
What's the school year shaping up like in Haiti? Consider summer recess exhausted! Classes are due to begin tomorrow April 6th, in some capacity or other. The Architecture for Humanity Haiti ground team reports the details:
"School is starting back on Tuesday for all schools. Since the earthquake, some private schools were able to get back on track in the last month, if their building structures were intact or suffered minor repairable damages. But this is the official mandate for all public and private institutions.
"The school term will run until August to make up for the time lost due to the earthquake (the spring term would have otherwise concluded in June). The kids will then get a month or so off and the fall semester will likely resume in early October.
"We've seen several schools being rebuilt in a hurry as we drive through town. The framing is rather light, and this indicates a transitional solution. They will most likely hang tarps to make do. The job sites seem to operate on the fly, with no drawings. The goal is visibly to get the kids back in a school environment as quickly as possible."
Following is another set of compelling reports from the ground in Haiti:
Adam Davidson. “The Economy of a Tent City” (online video). Port-au-Prince: Frontline/NPR Planet Money, March 2010 (no date). (An amazing window into day-to-day life in PAP displacement camps.) http://to.pbs.org/d7rwfw
Reed Lindsay. “Haiti's Excluded”. Port-au-Prince: The Nation, March 29, 2010. (Discussing the frustrations of aid distribution as it overpasses Haitian hands.) http://bit.ly/ahfGaX
Planet Money Podcast. "In Haiti, a Prime Minister's Lament." NPR Planet Money, March 16, 2010. (Discusses alternate terminology for reconstruction efforts as preferred by Haitian Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive.) http://bit.ly/dawmZl
An architect on our Haiti team recently paid a visit to the Cité Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince to evaluate the conditions of schools affected by the quake. Of the three already inspected, two (École St. Amboise and École St. Patrick) have suffered some damage but can be restored, while a third (École St. Francois d’Assise) was found to be extremely hazardous and must be demolished.
As our Haiti team wraps their initial tasks in Port-au-Prince, other reports from the ground continue to detail a picture of current conditions. We've collected here a few recent articles on Haiti–links to the Seattle Times, Inter Press Service (a non-profit global newswire out of Rome), and Haiti en March (brief articles in French discussing resettlement and structural inspections).
2 months after Haiti quake, housing still elusive. Ben Fox & Jonathan M. Katz, AP. Seattle Times, 12 March 2010.
HAITI: Earthquake Epicentre Copes with Aftermath. Garry Pierre-Pierre. Port-au-Prince: Inter Press Service, 1 March 2010.
HAITI: Universities Feel Strain After Earthquake. Garry Pierre-Pierre. Port-au-Prince: Inter Press Service, 1 February 2010.
La relocalisation à l'ordre du jou. Haïti en Marche. 15 mars 2010.
L'actualité après séisme. Haïti en Marche. 8 mars 2010.
Our Haiti team has sent us some startling figures reflecting longstanding price inflation in Haiti. These prices not only demonstrate the economic seclusion from–despite its proximity to–the United States, but seem to manifest themselves particularly in aid-provided goods. Milk, popular cereals and construction materials may reach 2-3 times their price in the United States while staples such as bottled water and eggs cost roughly the same in both countries. Haiti has been suffering from inflation for at least four years, but the Jan 12 earthquake has exacerbated the situation. Following are observed Haitian and Californian prices for select goods:
Food and material prices, Haiti and United States (in $US)
Product–Haiti/United States
Gallon of water–$1.25/$0.88
Gallon of milk–$12.00/$3.75
Loaf of bread (20oz)–$1.25/$2.50
One dozen eggs–$4.00/$3.19
Crispy rice cereal (18oz)–$9.00/$4.79
Gallon of gas–$8.00/$2.95
Lumber 2x4 (12')–$9.00/$3.27
Plywood 4'x8' (3/4")–$25.00/$12.00
Other products in Haiti
Furnished room for one person: $40/day, $1200/month
Two-bedrm apartment: $1500
House for 15-20 persons: $6000/month
Dry cleaning: $4/shirt
Hamburger combo: $7
Security guard: $600/wk
Wine: $5-$15/bottle
Builders dream of a better Haiti
--------------------
A group of architects, engineers and urban planners has met every day since
the devastating quake, discussing not how to rebuild but how to start anew.
By Mitchell Landsberg
January 26 2010
Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti -- The first e-mail went out within
hours of the Jan. 12 earthquake, calling together some of Haiti's most
prominent architects, engineers and urban planners. The next day, 50 people
showed up at a house in the hillside suburb of Petionville and went to work.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/system/files/Builders%20dream%20of%20...
Haiti – Summary of relief delivered to date – 19 January 2010
• Despite major logistical obstacles at the airport and on roads, relief is being provided, including medical assistance, food, water and shelter.
• The initial priority was on getting SAR teams into Haiti and dispatched to priority areas. Massive numbers of relief teams and supplies are arriving with more on their way. Over 400 relief personnel are in Haiti from more than 40 aid organizations.
• Search and Rescue and delivery of assistance is increasingly moving beyond Porte-au-Prince to affected areas (Jacmel, Carrefour, Legouane, etc)
• Humanitarian partners are seeing tremendous solidarity between neighbors and strangers alike in Haiti, sharing what little they have with each other.
• As of 18 January there were some 1,800 search and rescue responders in Haiti. 90 live rescues by USAR teams, in addition to the many saved by families, neighbors, etc.
• As of 19 January, the US military has not agreed to prioritize any flights that are not US military.
Health
• Public and private hospitals left standing after the earthquake stretched to the limit.
• 4 existing hospitals, 4 field hospitals functioning; 6+ additional field hospitals arriving (Mexico, Turkey, France, MSF, Indonesia, US).
• MSF treated 3,000+ patients, incl. 400+ acts of surgery.
• MSF international staff: 165, national staff: 500 (48 additional internationals on their way).
• MSF cargo flown in: 200 tons (another 198 tons are planned this week)
Food
• 330,000 people have received food assistance
• WFP is scaling up distributions to reach 2 million people
• Within the next week, WFP expects to move the equivalent of 10 million ready-to-eat meals
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
• 48 water distribution points established in PaP
• General hospital in Port-au-Prince has been provided with 120,000 liters of bottled water
• 1,000 latrines have been built in PaP by ICRC
Shelter/NFIs
• Shelter and NFI include: 1,920 hygiene kits, 258,600 aquatabs, 3,900 jerrycans, 300 hygiene kits, 300 kitchen kits, 600 mosquito nets, 300 plastic sheets, 600 sleeping mats and 300 tarpaulins, 240,600 aquatabs and 3300 jerry cans
• Aeriel surveys of the city have taken place to help the Government identify preferred temporary settlement sites
Security
• UN MINUSTAH is assisting with security and providing escort to aid convoys. MINUSTAH is scaling up with 2,000 military and 1,500 police following a Security Council decision on 19 January 2010.
error, please e-mail us at caasecurity@caa.com or call 424-288-2000.
It is not a building, it is a work of art, and we did that."
We're reaching more than a couple significant milestones as we head into the holidays.
The Haitian media has been buzzing about Bati Byen–with no shortage of web coverage, ink in Le Nouvelliste and TV interviews (tonight! see below).
Meanwhile our latest completed school had it's grand opening this week and other exciting developments abound on the ground.
News
Nov 7: École La Dignité opens - The well-attended grand opening of the school extension in Cayes Jacmel
introduced the world to the latest Haitian architecture.
Bati Byen launches - The long-developing outreach and advocacy program officially kicked off with a
ceremony at the Ritz Kinam II last month.
Billboards, radio spots and news coverage have since been popping up all over Port-au-Prince–see for yourself.
Haiti Schools Initiative - Meanwhile, our other
school projects move forward in construction - see the November 10 Haiti schools roundup for construction progress.
New collaborations - Very soon,
architecture studios from MIT will be working with the Rebuilding Center on building analysis as part of the Building Technology Laboratory.
New Arrivals
The Rebuilding Center welcomes new Design Fellows Natalie Desrosiers and Olivia Stinson!
Events
Tonight: interview broadcast. Bati Byen will be the topic of discussion this evening (Nov.
10) at 6:30 and 9:00 PM and tomorrow (Nov.
11) at 12:00 PM ET on Radio Tele Eclair Channel 4 (local TV) in Haiti.
Economic Development Director Martine Theodore will be discussing the program.
Meet n Greet.
Our next open house is scheduled for Friday, November 25, 5:30-7:30 at the Rebuilding Center–stay tuned for more information.
Special Thanks to everyone who made it to Manhattan for the 2011 Design Like You Give a Damn LIVE conference last month.
Several members of our Rebuilding Center and organizational colleages from Haiti participated in presentations and discussions regarding the future of disaster recovery and Haiti in particular.
If you missed the action, we've posted the conference material online!
Note: the Rebuilding Center will be observing a winter break from Wednesday December 21, 2011 to Tuesday, January 3, 2012.
Please prepare for staff to be away from the office and their email during this period.
Project Status Report
Haiti Rebuilding Center: Bati Byen
Launched October 14!! Check out the refreshed web page and hear our latest
The Center is augmenting it's Haitian Professional Directory - if you haven't yet reached out to us with a description of your office and photos of your work, let us
know!
Haiti School Initiative
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - 1% Phase 1 Construction Administration
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger,
Montrouis - 55% Phase 1 Construction Administration
École La Dignité - 90% Construction Administration
École Elie
Dubois - Entering Construction Administration
Institut Foyer du Savoir - 10% Phase 1 Construction Administration
St Louis de
Gonzague - 50% Construction Administration
Haiti Design Consultancy
Santo Community Development Plan - 25% Phase 3 (Construction)
Mme Joa Clinic - Entering
construction
Haiti Partners Children's Academy (BAR Architects) - Entering Construction Admin
J/P HRO - Ongoing–visit the
page for details!
Economic Corridors - The Team continues to track down owners of collapsed businesses around Port-au-Prince.