Organizing Haiti

This week, a graduate architecture studio from University of Pennsylvania is visiting Haiti, hosted by Architecture for Humanity. Last night, five student groups presented their studio projects on Haiti for critique and discussion. They developed theoretical infrastructure projects around ideas of rubble, ravines, voodoo, tap-taps, and IDP camps. The reviewers, including Leslie Voltaire, were kind since none of students had ever been to Haiti before. The first half of their study back in Philadelphia was accurately named, "Remote Sensing." I'm sure their projects will develop new depth and understanding after their visit here.



It's now been a grand 3 years since I have been in an architecture studio, but I found myself already uncomfortable with the academic lingo of architecture school.

Activating
Repurposing
Organizing

Architecture students are well-versed in the art of distancing oneself from the complexity of reality.

Case study
Population
Lifestyle

In a way, these kind of language or thinking is necessary to be able to get a grasp on the chaos of Haiti and create some of architectural intervention or "solution." You ignore the messiest aspects of any problem, such as agency or funding. If you were to ask, "So who would implement this? Who would pay for this?" it would shut down the conversation because it's not a part of their training. They are engaged in the art of inspiration and visioning.

Mostly I found it interesting how students with no real-life experience of Haiti framed the culture and its needs.   With an emphasis on planning, there was an overall desire to make the Haitian landscape "readable." Looking at photographs of post-earthquake streets, with the piles of rubble and trash, and seeing the country for the first time with all the people and commerce and movement... I can understand this desire. How the people live is invisible knowledge, it is not readily seen and understood. Mark where the tap-taps go and stop... Systematize way of allocating resources and open space... and so on.

Reviewer and local architect Yves Francois put it best when he asked the students to "celebrate and refine the chaos" of Haiti and Haitian culture. That is such a wonderful challenge: to marry creativity with reality.

I had some non-architect friends attend, who were quite impressed not only with their work and thought process, but also the culture of presentation. We may even adopt a form of mid-review so that we can learn more about the problem-solving process of other disciplines and organizations.