Fond-des-Blancs Housing Development

Spring 2012

​Prof. John McRae, Prof. David Matthews, Adjunct Faculty Chris King

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With support from the Haiti Christian Development Fund, the Fall semester of 2012 offered a unique project: a to-be-built housing development in the rural town of Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti.  This project was a follow-up to a previous project from an elective course where a secondary school was designed for Fond-des-Blancs by UTK architecture students. 

 

This project offered many new challenges to a design studio: designing for a difficult, earthquake-prone site, understanding a completely foreign culture, and developing a complete set of construction drawings.  A class trip to Fond-des-Blancs offered an invaluable wealth of insight into the culture and environment of Haiti post 2010 earthquake. 

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An initial site development phase led into the design of 14 individual and different house designs.  Houses were designed in pairs.  Initial steps of the development are currently being made in Fond-des-Blancs.

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Two-dimensional drawings created with AutoCAD.  Three-dimensional images created with Google Sketchup and Adobe Photoshop.  Physical model created with laser-cut basswood.  Project collaboration with Forrest Reynolds.