Studio Unité is a collaboration of American and Haitian students from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning. We endeavor to provide synthetic information on disaster response, low-cost sustainable planning and programming to international and Haitian designers and builders. The design and operation of Village Tournesol in Jacmel, Haiti will provide security and shelter for displaced women with children and orphans and provide a space for integrated education and micro-economies.

The extent of the destruction in Haiti, especially in the urban centers of Port-au-Prince and Jacmel, due to the January 2010 earthquake was critically and directly linked to poor building practice and the failure of architecture to meet the basic requirement of protecting human life. Port-au-Prince and the nation of Haiti was built of unstable infrastructure and policies on a foundation of over two centuries international and domestic abuses of power and social turmoil.

The problems facing Haiti right now are many-fold; first, international and domestic organizations are struggling to provide effective and immediate disaster relief in the forms of temporary shelter and infrastructure to save lives and establish basic qualities of life. Secondly, we must initiate a quick but well-considered and sustainable rebuilding effort. There is a short and long-term need for the design and implementation of building codes and affordable and effective building practices. This will require extensive education of an informal and decentralized building culture. The destruction of the earthquake is only the most recent strata of crisis plaguing Haiti, as the country strives to overcome centuries of political and natural disasters, history will complicate recovery and the relationship of all parties involved.

The materials for housing must integrate agriculture and commerce, to insure jobs. Innovative solutions for infrastructure must bind alternative energy, communication, sanitation and rainwater collection networks. We are intensely committed to providing well researched and documented information about Haiti’s culture, from religion, and social environment, to political and ecological tensions. This research prefaces the designs for Haiti, to create more responsive and strategic opportunities for land remediation, civic constitution, and social economy.

Contact: studio.unite@gmail.com


Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Anna Heringer and Studio Luz


Studio Luz - Hope for the Children

Orphanage and school for chilren in Port-au-Prince.

Navigate to Work/Institutional/HFC

The alternation of interior and exterior classrooms in the school plan is a great idea.

They've had a similar idea about breaking the orphanage into 8-12 children units with a house mother to promote a family versus institutional atmosphere.


Anna Heringer

Has done several projects in Bangladesh using earth and bamboo to make schools and domestic structures. Especially see Handmade School and DESI. The background text is very well written and discusses why there has been a shift away from traditional building methods and why she feels it is critical to re-employ them.






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