AA Haiti Visiting School

‘Can bamboo alleviate some of Haiti’s problems?’ A question many ecologists, architects and engineers have asked at a time when Haiti’s forest coverage has reached 1.4%. Deforestation has destroyed rural economies and has removed lightweight timbers from the Haitian construction sector. The consequences of which were seen in the disproportionate devastation and death-toll of the 2010 earthquake. The fast growing material of bamboo is being increasingly seen as a solution not just in binding the exposed hillsides, but as a source of low cost, lightweight, and flexible material for construction.

For the third year we will be investigating the potential of bamboo, through experimental architectural design contextualised for the climate, culture and geopolitical complexities of this Caribbean paradise. Participants will be asked not only to create a vision for a specific site, activity and community, but design a structure that can act a catalyst for a change in a national relationship with the material. In the second stage of the programme, one proposal will then be constructed. The first to be built from locally sourced and treated bamboo.

With community discussion, cultural lectures and visits to three areas in Haiti, participants will have a rare opportunity to embrace many aspects of this Country, whilst simultaneously learning about bamboo, new design methodologies, software, and construction skills.

The 2016 programme will be running in two separate consecutive courses:

Summer Course: Experimental Bamboo II – 30th July – 11th August 2016 (13 days)

As with many countries, bamboo is unfortunately seen as ‘the poor man’s timber’. With a specific brief to design a community facility, we are looking for students who are able to create that engaging vision of what bamboo can do spatially to change that perception.

This process will expose students to the following activities:

Site mapping and community discussion.
Adventure to less traveled parts of Haiti.
Bamboo model making.
3d modelling software.
Cultural lectures.
Climate simulation modelling.

In the bamboo forests of Northern Haiti we will have a short bamboo workshop. Here students will learn about:

Taxonomy and species types indigenous to Haiti and the region.
Cutting, treatments and drying.
Tools.
Joinery techniques to produce a 1:1 scale component.

Winter Course: Constructing Bamboo - 3rd – 15th January 2017 (13 days)

One project will be selected from the Summer Course and will be built for the community. In the process, we will learn about bamboo construction as well as pioneering a new bamboo infrastructure in Haiti.

Participants will be part of building Haiti’s first bamboo structure from locally sourced bamboo. This process will expose students to:

Taxonomy and species types indigenous to Haiti and the region.
Cutting, treatments and drying.
Tools.
Joinery techniques.
Site safety and equipment.
Working as part of a construction team.
Cultural lectures and festivities.
Community engagement.

To compliment the construction process, 3D software will be taught as we discover the role it can play on the construction site in: finding measurements; recording changes to the bamboo structure; rapidly testing variations or alternatives to the design, and these skills will also be taught.

Participants will also be involved in developing the long-term strategy beyond the building site. With community participation, and workshops with carpenters and artisans, we will partake in a two way knowledge transfer to maintain these skills locally, long after the course.

For more information please visit: http://haiti.aaschool.ac.uk