Open Architecture Network

Builders dream of a better Haiti
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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...

Back to 2D drawing, we are now beginning to build the execution drawings.

first design of the structure uploaded. Now we need to simplify a bit to reduce the cost. We finally choosed to discard the bamboo andgo for a classical wooden structure, mainly because of the remoteness of the project site, and the difficulty to transport construction bamboo to there. Classical construction wood is much easier to obtain.

I will have an update every month to keep OAN users and guests updated on the progress of this project.

Design charette concluded

The design charette was concluded Tuesday 26th May 2009. Where David, myself and youth shared eats and drinks and mainly thanked the youth for their contribution and participation during the charette. I made a presentation of the final gate and explained the process we went through before coming up with the final community gate. It was important for the youth to see how each group’s ideas had contributed to the final design. Group 2 burglar design was the successful design that was selected and the reason being that it incorporated all the other two group’s ideas.

Preliminary poster designs for each group were also shown to the youth and they really liked them. These posters will be hang up during the gate painting ceremony so that the guests get to see what designs were done by the youth.
The youth were happy with the final selected designs and look forward to being a part of the gate painting ceremony that is scheduled to happen in June.

Final gate and burglar bar pattern selected

The final gate was selected and approved by SIDAREC and AfH. It will be unveiled on the gate painting ceremony scheduled to happen in the month of June. The pictures will be uploaded after the gate unveiling ceremony.

Visit to local metal fabricators

There are a number of small scale metal fabricators commonly called “Jua Kali”. Most gates around Nairobi are done at these workshops. So I visited some of these workshops to gauge personally if they can fabricate the SIDAREC community gate and deliver it to site. A lot of creativity was seen at these workshops but then in the end we settled with a local fabricator that was known to one of the SIDAREC staff members.

Meet with another contractor

George (SIDAREC - Administrative Officer) and I, met with another contractor to assess and get a feel for what kind of person he is and what kind of work his company is involved in. It was an interesting and informative meeting both from our side and his.

Council drawings approved

The council drawings for the SIDAREC Technology centre were also approved and we are now that much closer to the Bidding process and very soon construction will commence.

Ghetto 99.9FM back on air

Yeah! you read right. Ghetto FM is officially back on the air waves and is broadcasting from their new studio at NACICO Plaza, which is where the SIDAREC head office is. Some of you might remember the Pumwani blaze that occured some months back. Well the radio studio was also destroyed in the blaze. But thanks to various donors they are now up and running. We at AFH are also looking forward to the second studio that will constructed at the Mukuru site.

Look forward to the month of June

Since this project is located in Brazil and almost all the participants are in Brazil, all the project's documentation will be written in portuguese. We may of course translate something to french or english from time to time, but to who doesn't understand portuguese, please use an online translator or contact one of us for direct explanations.

o.k, this pre design was a complete a couple of weeks ago..
still, the images will be uploaded soon...
uhmm yes.. more information and several technical questions will be addressed soon...

i'am still looking in to the seismic and rammed earth construction methods. Due to the fact that it is cheap and affordable. Still, Uganda natural prized natural resources are very limited.....