SEMINAR, SS 2014
Renato d´Alençon Castrillón

Reclaiming Heritage: Haiti - Croix-Des-Bouquets

Reclaiming Heritage - Haiti aims at exploring the potentials of using reclaimed building materials for a sensitive post-disaster reconstruction that includes cultural values and the retention of heritage by means of direct user involvement in the technical decisions and in the project management. The project proposes a model of housing reconstruction based on the re-use of existing foundations and reuse of construction debris, to make partially destroyed houses inhabitable for users.

This Seminar will prepare the necessary contents, methodology and organization for an excursion and construction Workshop to take place in Croix-des-Bouquets, Port-au-Prince between July and September 2014 with 30 families of the local community and funded by the international N.G.O. SELAVIP (Servicio Latino-americano, Africano y Asiático de Vivienda Popular).

The work builds on the winning entry on the competition “Haiti Ideas Challenge” sponsored by ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) and USAID (United States’ Agency for International Development) for reconstruction in Haiti and a previous prototype built by in the area of Delmas, P-a-P with student volunteers. The previous works can be reviewed in detail in www.reclaimingheritage.org