The Goal of The Invisible Architecture

I had written a more complicated introduction, full of my theories and poetics. But let me be honest.

I am moving to Haiti and I know almost no one. This blog will be my way of cataloging who I meet and what they do. With some people, I will be able to follow them and see how they do what they do and how well they are able to do it.

Who am I? I am a 24 year old with a degree in architecture. My professional experiences lie at the nexus of urban planning, social work, public health, and documentary film in St. Louis, Missouri. I have made films comparing redevelopment strategies of communities within St. Louis and affordable housing strategies of design-build studios in rural Alabama, Biloxi, and New Orleans, with special focus on community engagement. I hesitate to call myself a documentary film-maker but since I have gotten paid for my work, I cautiously accept the title. I really see film as the most egalitarian way to share knowledge and to record history.

Can you see where I am going with this? I am especially interested in how organizations seek to rebuild communities. Haiti has probably the highest concentration of such organizations in the world today. If one of them had THE answer, there probably would not be so many. What I want to learn is the difference between their strategies and the challenges they face. While their organizations will gleefully report the tangible results of their work by the number of buildings they construct or people they house, I am more interested in the intangible, the invisible hands that shape their work.

The usual suspects from what I know so far? Politics. Resources. Politics within organizations, between organizations, and acting upon them. Resources are monetary, natural, and human. The struggles for funding, the machinations of political candidates, the results by which organizations measure their success. I'm sure I will find many more.

I arrive November 12 and will rejoin my family of 2: my partner, Eric Cesal (Regional Manager of Architecture for Humanity-Haiti) and my beautiful chow-labrador mutt, Lady Dulcinea.