Haiti Aggregating Units

Professor: Harris Dimitropoulos

Year: Second-year student project

Assignment: Community planning project for Haiti, by aggregating the units designed in the previous project. 

Concept: Re-instate sense of community after earthquake; extendability; kit-of-parts; pre-fab design; affordability; sustainability; ease of assembly; multipliability; safety; cost-effective; use available resources; durable lightweight materials. Address flooding issues, muddy terrain, earthquake problems, humidity, multi-purpose spaces, Haitian culture, and utilize Haitian labor to boost economy and involve Haitians in process. Need water, filter, sewage, and air ventilation systems, security, and public institutions.

Design: Pinwheel design of community layout. Centrally located, multi-functional community space for congregating. Smaller branches of social interaction and duties extend from center. Out-skirts comprised of non-social activities, but secure from crime. Small circles of interaction (residential, etc.) located around central community space; this sub-community would be surrounded by other sub-communities so that no outskirts are left open as crime magnets. Surrounding community is agricultural terrain. Rainwater dispersed over elevated terrain gathers in communal cistern at bottom of hill. Water from this cistern can be rationed out to community for sub-community and family cisterns.