Shelter Centre

Talk is already turning to reconstruction in Haiti. Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit design services firm that specializes in post-disaster reconstruction, has released some general concept notes. Writing at the firms website, Cameron Sinclair, an architect and the groups founder, referenced controversies following Hurricane Katrina in the United States:

I remember vividly well-known news personalities standing on the rubble of homes in the lower ninth [New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood] proclaiming that this time next year we will see families back home. Some well-meaning NGOs, who usually have little building experience, are even worse well have 25,000 Haitians back home if you donate today. In reality, here is what it really looks like:

Pre-Planning Assessments and Damage Analysis (underway, will run for a year) Establish Community Resource Center and Reconstruction Studio (Week 6 to Month 3) Sorting Out Land Tenure and Building Ownership (Month 6 to Year 5) Transitional Shelters, Health Clinics and Community Structures (Month 6 to Year 2) Schools, Hospitals and Civic Structures (Month 9 to Year 3) Permanent Housing (Year 1 to Year 5)

Early reports on the damage pointed mostly to lax construction standards in Haiti. At the Earth Institutes State of the Planet blog, the focus was on bad construction:

Much of the rubble seen in the terrible videos we are now appallingly used to is composed of chunks of cement " and just cement. This is the style so typical of poorer parts of the world. Just cement is not enough; columns and walls should be built with high quality cement, with the right amount of sand, and sewn through with steel reinforcing bars " rebar. Thats what gives them strength. Next time you look at a video or a still image of damaged buildings in Haiti, look for rebar. I havent seen any yet.

But Adolphe Saint-Louis, a 49 year-old quake survivor interviewed in Port au Prince by New American Media, describes something more complicated than better concrete. Her home was built as a series of additions, and with rebar, she says to keep extended family under one roof, and share building costs in the family. Making the building expandable served an important function, but proved catastrophic when the structure failed.

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