Students create designs for rebuilding
Haitian district during daylong charrette

Students at Texas A&M created designs for new housing in the Bel-Air district of Port-au-Prince, one of the Haitian capital's areas hit hardest by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The designs were created during the Department of Architecture's daylong charrette, which takes place at the beginning of each long semester. This spring's charrette began Jan. 22 at 8:30 a.m., when students received their instructions.

"Students were asked to design an urban block," said Glen Mills, head of the department. "The charrette is about architecture for a crisis-ridden area where there is need for the reconstruction of communities."

The block consisted of what he called a core, or starter house, consisting of two 3 meter by 3 meter cubes, approximately 10' x 10'.

"One of those we call a wet core, with plumbing, bathroom, toilet and basins, and one a dry core, which is for living and sleeping," he said. "Those two cores form a starter house, in the sense that the dwellers can grow the house in the future. What you plant there now is the seeds for the future environment."

It's not so much about designing a city, he said, but growing a city through small-scale architectural interventions.

"In that way, by starting a growth process, we can make a contribution to the reconstruction of communities."

Students were asked to design the homes on 9 meter by 9 meter lots on a 110 square meter block, a typical urban block in the Bel-Air district, and include areas for residents to start gardens as well as a common green space.

At 3:30 p.m. students hung 2-D and 3-D drawings of their designs in the Langford atrium, and faculty members chose winning designs from students at all six levels in the undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as architecture career change students.

- Posted: Jan. 27, 2010 -