The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announce Burtland Granvil, AIA, LEED AP as the new Architecture for Humanity Sustainability Design Fellow. Succeeding the first Sustainability Design Fellow, Stacey McMahan, AIA, LEED AP, Granvil will be working directly with the Haitian community at the Architecture for Humanity’s rebuilding center based in Port-au-Prince.

“The earthquake didn’t take as many lives as the poor quality of construction did,” said Granvil. “Architecture for Humanity’s Rebuilding Center in Haiti will help educate and build together with local current and future builders of Haiti…this is the main reason why I joined Architecture for Humanity. I am here with others to work on the long-term approach. Haiti, as well as other post disaster areas, can benefit from this kind of transitional office with this mindset.” read more »

Aerial © HOK

Marking the two year anniversary of the devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, we would like to share with you the important efforts of Project Haiti – a LEED Platinum orphanage and children’s center that is planned to be built in Port au Prince, Haiti. The project is lead by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and their official pro-bono design partner, HOK. Project Haiti not only focuses on the children, but also aims to create a “replicable, resilient model for rebuilding” that may serve as a practical teaching tool for the local community. The USGBC motto states, “Every story about green building is a story about people.” read more »

Exterior Rendering - Courtesy of David Lopez

In the Spring of 2011, the Design|Build studio at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) began researching the various influences impacting the design and construction of transitional shelters used in disaster relief. The research included a review of conditions in Haiti, where a portion of the class travelled to Port-Au-Prince over their Spring Break to check out some of the shelter types being constructed in response to the earthquake that devastated the area back in January of 2010.

Several case studies were investigated, including the Haiti Earthquake. The research was comprehensive. However, the impact of this survey on the outcome of transitional shelter was debatable – there were no “universal solutions”, and there was no panacea that could solve every scenario.

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Courtesy of Trans_City Architecture and Urbanism

Mark Gilbert discusses redesigning and rebuilding the city of Jacmel, Haiti with Alexander Britell from Caribbean Journal. The architect and his colleagues at trans_city used New Orleans typologies and their concept of rapid-response housing to provide an economical reconstruction proposal that will provide long-term stability to the people of Jacmel.

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Courtesy of Trans_City Architecture and Urbanism

Over the last 18 months, Trans_City architecture and urbanism, has developed a comprehensive plan for the reconstruction of Jacmel, Haiti based upon the concept of satellite cities located at the edge of the existing, earthquake-ravaged city center.(A concept developed in accordance with the universal design principals of the Housing Reconstruction Framework of the Haitian Government)

The concept includes an urban masterplan, and a proposal for prefabricated houses, in which the building shell is industrially manufactured in Austria, and finished by local hand workers. In line with the content of the project, the architecture does not attempt to be spectacular. Rather, it is the holistic integration of the many levels of an urban system that makes this project interesting. More images and project description after the break. read more »

aerial

I|K Studio shared with us their masterplan design with an energy network for an academy outside of Port-au-Prince. This design will serve as a model of offset power production independent from a central utility. More images and project description after the break. read more »

© Laurel Cummings

In March of 2011, a design-build class from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) received a grant in support of their efforts to design a shelter for disaster relief. The money from the grant was used to travel to Haiti to see conditions on the ground, 14 months after the earthquake that reportedly amassed some 230,000 fatalities.

The goal of the trip was to investigate the myriads of different shelter construction projects still ongoing as Haiti transitions from the emergency tents and tarpaulins that still populate the landscape, into temporary housing for the foreseeable future until permanent housing can be provided through rebuilding.

One of the more ambitious and impressionable projects we came across was the UberShelter.

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Courtesy NC-office

Miami firm NC-0ffice has shared with us their project for disaster relief housing, specifically for Haiti. Additional images and a description from the architects after the jump.
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Courtesy of Architecture for Humanity

Earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, monsoons in India, and now the disasters in Japan.  Each has left thousands displaced from their homes, giving us, as architects, reason to re-think the idea of temporary housing. In Chile, strict building codes helped some infrastructure withstand the 8.5 quake; yet, there is a limit to the pre-disaster measures a country can take.  So, what are the steps for dealing with the after effects of the disaster, be it wind, water, or seismic damages?

Each world tragedy brings with it the opportunity for the creative to find solutions that will help give shelter to people.  There are many obstacles to overcome in Japan’s case – roads are completely destroyed which presents quite a challenge to collect and transport material, plus snow has covered much of the region.  Yet, if we could re-think the idea of a house and pool our efforts to create a system of rapid response temporary housing that can overcome such obstacles, think of the number of people in devastated areas that would benefit from such a project.

More after the break. read more »

Architects: Tangram 3DS
Location: Haiti
Project year: 2010
Photographs Tangram 3DS read more »

Courtesy of Architecture for Humanity

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund just awarded $816,472 to Architecture for Humanity for the Haiti Rebuilding Center to support reconstruction and livelihoods in Port-au-Prince, a town that was catastrophically affected by an earthquake at the beginning of the year.  As a result, many large buildings were either severely damaged or destroyed. This fund will not only aid in the rebuilding process, but will benefit thousands of who were suffering since the natural disaster. Additionally, this grant will enable small and growing Haitin businesses to participate in post-earthquake reconstruction and ensure rebuilding incorporates better design and engineering. More information after the break. read more »

Christopher Morgan, architecture student from Virginia Tech won an international competition to design Yéle Music Studio in the Cité Soleil area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The competition was launched before the terrible earthquake  of January 12, and architecture students from all over the world were invited to participate. The Royal Institute of British Architects, along with architecture firm John McAslan + Partners and developer Allied London, sponsored the competition on behalf of Yéle Haiti, a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 by Haiti-born musician Wyclef Jean.

The brief asked entrants to design a 1,000-square-foot music studio that would contain recording and radio-production facilities, while also offering space for vocational training for at-risk youth in Cité Soleil, a poor and crime-ridden district. You can see more images of the winning design after the break. Seen at Architectural Record. read more »

A while ago we told you about Rebuilding a Sustainable Haiti, a symposium on planning strategies that can lead to a more socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable future in Haiti, hosted by the Institute for Urban Design on June 4.

The organization have recently added videos of the entire symposium to their website. You can see the various presentations, panel discussions, and Q&A sessions that took place. The videos are also timestamped to allow viewers to skip ahead to highlights within the individual videos. You can see all the videos right here.

Building Back Better Communities has been initiated by the Government of Haiti to investigate alternative forms of permanent housing for displaced citizens. 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.

The Government of Haiti wishes to attract as wide a response as possible from across the world. Designers, architects, contractors, consultants and suppliers are all warmly invited to participate. More information here. Seen at Death by Architecture.

In just a short period of time since the earthquake hit Haiti, designers have been proposing possible housing solutions for the country.  We will share a variety of these housing schemes with you throughout the week, with the hope that they will encourage more people to get involved to help not only Haiti, but also Chile.   The first proposal is designed by Andres Duany, a Miami architect.  Duany, with the help of sociologists and anthropologists, has designed four different versions of a temporary structure to relieve the urgent need for housing in Haiti.   The differences in the homes respond to the varying ways Haitians live, so that each home is tailored to their specific needs.

More about the houses after the break. read more »

GOOD has teamed up with PRE and Studio X to inspire designers through the monthly Spontaneous Architecture competition. This month, they want you to come up with creative solutions to help Haiti in its rebuilding efforts.

Submissions are due February 15, and the entry fee is $5. Fifty percent of the entry fees will go to the winner, and the other half will be donated to the Haitian relief effort. For more details, go to the competition’s official website.

Haiti

A Clemson University Architecture project lead by Doug Hecker and Martha Skinner examines the use of shipping containers as housing in disaster situations in the Caribbean Region.

The project , called SEED, was done last year, and it was designed specially for countries facing hurricanes. Nevertheless, the containers can also be used in other tragic circumstances, such as the terrible earthquake in Haiti (which was also featured in the project).

See more about the project, pictures and videos after the break. read more »

© NY Daily News

It has been reported that 3 million people (about a third of Haiti’s population) have been affected by the recent earthquake.  With that number expected to climb as the days progress, the number of casualties will be somewhere nearing 50,000.  Many countries are supplying immediate help as millions of dollars, and tons of food, water and medical supplies are rapidly being delivered to the small country.

It is important that as the weeks and the months pass, we continue to think about how we can get involved and help.  Organizations such as Architecture for Humanity have already brainstormed ideas and developed a timeline which outlines their relief strategy.  There is little doubt that Habitat for Humanity will be bringing teams of volunteers to help rebuild.

As architects, but also as people, we have the power to drastically improve the situation.  Our thoughts will continue to be with Haiti during these times and we should try to supply any kind of assistance in the next few days, weeks, months and years.