2011 haiti_utk publication

One to Another

A Downloadable Publication from the 2011 Haiti UTK Studio

 

WBIR Report of the Haiti Studio

Introduction haiti_utk

Welcome to the Haiti UTK site! The work on these pages reflects student engagement in design for both a school and housing for the community of Fonds des Bloncs, Haiti in collaboration with the Haiti Christian Development Fund. The project was initiated in the early fall of 2010 and subsequently a class of 19 students, in the spring of 2011, was given the responsibility of deisgning a secondary school. The school is under constuction. A new group of students is now hard at work developing new housing in Fonds des Blancs. The work of these students can be seen in the pages of this blog. Students of the class will be traveling to Haiti Februay 2-6 to collect addiional data. It is anticipated that this second phase of the project will be completed in late April with construction starting summer 2012. The work of the students is being guided by three primary faculty, John McRae, David Matthews, and Chris King, a local practictioner. The students during their exploration will engage a wide range of issues including context, culture, resources, climate and other outside factors not common to their expereince. 

Students: Cassidy Barnett, Aaron Brown, Sarah Heimermann, Mitzi Coker, Emily Corgan, Ben Cross, Peter Duke, Emily Fike, Sam Funari, Lauren Heile, Kendra McHaney, Lauren Metts, Morgan Oiler, Bernice Paez, Forrest Reynolds, Emily Ryan, James Sawyer, Zachary Smith, Robert Thew, Cory Wikerson Faculty: John McRae, Chris King, David Matthews

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Special Thanks!

The Haiti Studio for spring 2012 is being supported by HaitiServe foundation based in Knoxville Tennessee, that is focused on outreach and engagement in improving conditions in Haiti. 

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Friday
Mar022012

Housing Design Proposal

Expatriate Housing Programming 

Our team signed up to work on the expatriate housing programming.  We used two methods of diagramming to portray our interpretation of program relations.  The first was a more simple, quick look at what spaces are related, a "bubble" diagram.  The connections made could either be because the spaces should be attached for circulation, or more functional aspects like sharing a plumbing wall.

The second diagram, an Adjacency Matrix, is a much more in depth look into how each program is related to every other space in the house.  We decided to created four categories to help us define these relations.  Adjacent, or primary the primary connection, means that the spaces should be attached for convenience or functional purposes.  Nearby is a secondary connection, and not adjacent means that the spaces should not or would not be near each other in the house for privacy reasons or for front/back placement within the house. Not related are simply spaces that do not have an important correlation.

 

Expatriate House Design Scheme

After defining these adjacencies we diagrammed a layout for how we could achieve everything on our list, as well as focusing on passive ventilation and creating a private courtyard.

 

When designing this house, our team thought about the site plan and about the multiple driveways and pedestrian paths that border many of the lots. In thinking about an expatriate coming back to Haiti after living in the US for a while, we thought they might have grown accustomed to the American standard of a private backyard.  So, we wanted to create a house plan that would give them a sense of privacy with a courtyard in the back of the house.  If they want to lay down outside and read a book and not feel like everyone can see them, or even if they want to open up all the doors to the courtyard and truly blur the definition between interior and exterior, then they can do so without everyone being able to see inside.

Another aspect of this courtyard, and "H" shape plan arrangement is that it helps to promote passive ventilation, a leading factor in our house design.  With each branch of this house being single loaded, cross ventilation is easily achieved.  The bathrooms are pulled from the main form to obtain cross ventilation, as apposed to only having one window in the bathroom wall and having more stagnant air.  Also when designing the roof plan and gables, we added a clerestory for stack ventilation. 

 

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