Design Proposal

Precedent Analysis

Butterfly Houses

Analysis of Butterfly Houses

Located in a small village of Noh Bo, Tak on the Thai-Burmese border, the Butterfly Houses were designed by TYIN Tegnestue, a non profit organization specializing in humanitarian architecture. This community of dormitories was designed to work in collaboration with the existing orphanage. The goal was to create a space where children could have a normal living experience, with room to climb, swing, interact, or be alone. Our analysis focused primarily on the functionality of the units and how we might glean principles out of their design to utilize in our design of Haitian residences.

SITE PLAN

 

Site Plan and Driving ConceptsPrivate Courtyard DiagramStreet ViewPedestrian Walkway

Street View Looking Into CourtyardFloor Plan

When designing this proposal for a housing development in Fonds Des Blancs, Haiti, we decided to shape our program around four major, driving concepts. In order to optimize views and maintain a strong edge along the street, porches were designed to fit the house and act as a buffer between the irregularly placed houses and the rigid street. Most of the porches used are considered private and semi-private, so that they can better serve the inward-focused courtyard or take full advantage of interactions that would occurr along the street edge.

Throughout the site, a pedestrian path has been created to guide both visitors and residents through the site, serving as the main connection between the commercial zone along the main street and the large communal space located near the intersection of the streams. This path follows the natural topography of the site within a rigid, paved framework, while also interweaving various landscape features. Running the full length of the path is a colonade of trees designed to optimize certain views and shield other views into the private courtyard. These trees serve as a guide to lead pedestrians to the communal pavilion or the commercial space. Views have dictated much of what was designed on the site, from the orientation of the homes, to the location of the pavilion and communal space.

Every house on the site has been designed in such a way that it acts as one part of group of homes that create several pods across the site. This layout allowed us to utilize the private courtyards and create an inward focusing space that can be used as a gathering place for cooking, socializing or recreation. While each home is allotted to their own lot, the private courtyard acts as  backyard to each home within the pod.

Team 3 Design Proposal Gallery

Sources:

http://www.archdaily.com/25748/soe-ker-tie-house-tyin-tegnestue/

http://cvs-thailand.com/house/index.html

http://www.archidir.com/sustainable-design/small-timber-prefab-houses-design-in-thailand-by-tyin-tegnestue/

Enveloped in a New Culture and Site

Culture

Visiting Fond-des-Blancs opened our eyes to what is truly important in Haitian design. Our first observation was that porches are a vital means to socialization in Haiti. The porch is said to be the main spot for socializing with friends and family and is often considered a room of its own. The ideal weather conditions make being outside much more comfortable than being indoors. Also, we were told that most Haitians leave the interior of their home as a space for only themselves. Much like we would invite guests into our living rooms, Haitians use their porches as their main living space.

Another observation that was made is that Haitians rely heavily on local streams and rivers for bathing and washing their clothes.  Though this is part of their day-to-day life, we are hoping that adding a laundry service to the commercial/residential area would be appealing to many people. The laundry service would be located in one of the stores below the apartments and preferably run by a Haitian living in the community.

Cooking outdoors has consistently influenced our ideas for the housing design thus far. We have tried to incorporate not only cooking areas but also eating areas outdoors because we assumed that is what Haitians would enjoy. However, we came to find during our visit that, though they enjoy the outdoors, we should leave eating areas indoors and consider rainy days when designing the cooking areas. Charcoal grilling outside needs to be an option but cooking should be pushed indoors.

Site Overview

After blindly picturing the site for weeks, it was an eye opener to finally have the chance to explore the site. The studio as a whole had expected the topography of the site to be a struggle, but the extreme slopes of the site were a bit shocking to most.  There is far less semi-flat land to build on than we had expected. The slopes at times seemed to reach a 45 to 60 degree angle down to the river. We have thrown around the idea of putting housing on stilts and breaking the houses into zones that can be tiered along with the slope. After seeing the actual topography, we feel this is the correct path to take.

Our group has placed most of the housing development in a high-density vegetation area on the site. We see this both as an asset and possible problem. The vegetation can help shade the housing, but could also create problems when the lots are being laid out. We want to avoid cutting down trees or ruining the land so we would like to preserve as much vegetation as possible.

One of the most intriguing parts of the site to our group was the connection of the river and small stream. We believe it would be a great gathering spot and highlight of the site. Our group has pictured this connection point as a place for social gatherings and pavilions for the community. The streams/rivers seemed to be the main places we saw people outside of their homes in Haiti so we believe this connection is the ideal spot for a community space.

The size and feel of the initial long strip of land at the front of the site came as a pleasant site to our group. Our ideas of a combined commercial and residential area seem to be able to work well. The width of the strip of land and small amount of vegetation seem to be perfect for our proposed ideas.

Site Analysis - Low Vegetation

Similar types of low vegetation were observed towards the back of the site near the river. The initial strip of land at the front of the site seemed to house a few different types of vegetation compared to the rest of the site. The front of the site is significantly less dense with vegetation compared to the rest of the site, which could be the cause for this difference in vegetation. The specific types of vegetation have not yet been recorded because we are currently exploring the possibilities of what each might be.

Adventures in Haiti

The culture of a place is the most important element to consider in design. On of Haiti's most prominent elements of Haiti's cutlture is water. Life revolves around water. In Haiti water plays an enormous role in everyday life.  As Americans we take simple tasks such as bathing, laundry, or even simply brushing our teeth for granted. For Haitians the involvement of water brings community.  Everything in the Haitians day is based on when, where, and how they obtain their water and who they obtain it with.

Photo by Morgan Oiler

Photo by Morgan Oiler

Photo by Morgan Oiler

Photo by Morgan Oiler

 Photos by Morgan Oiler

 Site Overview

 

Photo by Morgan Oiler

Photo by Morgan Oiler

Photo by Morgan Oiler

Water is not only an important element to the Haitian culture, but to our site development as well. During our time in Haiti our team researched hydrology patterns on our site. The site was broken up into six regions. We started our research at the Ephemeral stream which cuts through the site. We recorded potential wet lands, ponds, and water flow patterns. We noticed the direction of water flow and where water collected. Haiti is currently in its dry season so we were able to notice where ponds of water occur. It was important to get accurate sketches to understand what areas are unbuildable.

Photos by Morgan Oiler

LLBen's Reflection of Design & Looking Forward

Crossing the Stream in Fonds des Blancs - Photo: Lauren Metts

m Photo Lauren Metts

After our trip to Haiti, we decided that our initial design needed several alterations to become more successful. Not knowing how much the extreme topography affected the site as a whole, we had designed homes that would no longer be legitimate to build. Also, we needed to take into consideration the noise coming from the generator the people of this community would have access to and how to deafen it. Being a new and improved neighborhood, the design of the kitchen within the homes needed to be altered to uplift and strengthen the notion of a more technologically advanced society.

Several key issues that we saw the need to develop further after our visit are as follows:

1. The placement of homes within the site and the probable conditions needed to be thoroughly thought through after visiting the site.
2. The homes needed to have access to a road or path of some kind for (at least) the construction purposes, as well as vehicular access.
3. The relationship of public verses private spaces needed to be designed systematically to encourage outsiders to want to come to Fonds des Blancs, which included the size of the lot for each unit.
4. The porch and its placement within the floor plan was a key component in the home. We also learned that the porch should be treated as the most popular room within the dwelling, being the main space inhabited by the owner and his visitors. The idea of a back, more private porch needed to be considered in addition to the front, public porch attached to each unit.
5. Access and placement of the public spaces, water, a generator, the commercial program, and footbridge needed to be dealt with by thinking as a Haitian would (who would or would not have vehicular access).
6. The diverse categories of housing for different types of people coming into Fonds des Blancs also needed to be considered as we moved from the site plan to the individual units.

With all of our designs, we had to keep the idea of the next phase of design in mind, Phase III, which included the airstrip adjacent to our site at hand, and would be a possible place to expand our initial design.

 Photo: Lauren Metts

One of the homes found on our hike 

Design Proposal: 1 Week Charette

Research and Precedent

To begin our process of exploring and designing, we chose 2 places to compare/contrast that had an attractive quality to locals and visitors. We researched Cherokee Boulevard in Knoxville, TN, and the Highline in New York City, NY.  Why are people attracted to these areas? What defines these spaces?  The Highline’s green space is defined by the existing, once operating rail road tracks elevated 30 feet above the streets of NY. It demonstrates compression and release in the paving patterns and green spaces.  People seek out this space in the midst of the NYC chaos to relax and unwind.  Cherokee Boulevard’s green space is defined by trees, water, and cliffs.  The compression and release is created in the gravel path down the center of the boulevard that releases out into intersections, fountains and open areas preserved for recreation. People are attracted to this area for the open spaces as well as relaxing atmosphere. We were able to use this research for future development of the project. We used the ideas of what gave the spaces their attractiveness by creating smaller areas within the site for people to gather.

Cherokee Boulevard, Knoxville, TN. Central walking trailHighline, New York City, NY.

In addition to researching gathering places, we researched a community redevelopment project in order to better understand the process of community reconstruction. The project we researched was Monwabisi Park, Cape Town, South Africa. We focused on the second phase of the project (not yet underway) which is the housing. We learned that the method of Earthbag construction was a great fit for that community because of their natural resources and easy labor method of building these Earthbag houses.

We wanted to take the concept of natural resources and apply it to our project proposal, in terms of using mostly readily available materials and methods for easy and less expensive construction. Our proposal consists of using locally made CMU with some wood for roof tresses. 

Design Proposal

Before our journey to Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti, each of the 7 teams, over the course of a week, came up with an overall community plan, given the site parameters. This included placement of roads, housing, detailed floor plans, existing elements, bridges, etc. We were equipped with information from Jean via a Skype interview where he gave us his ideas for the housing project. The purpose of this exercise was to begin brainstorming ideas for design as well as to have presentation material for Jean and Joy Thomas (the developers of this project) while in Haiti.

Our team's presentation to Jean and Joy Thomas in Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti

The principle behind our design was to create organization out of chaos.  We achieved organization by setting each housing unit 12 feet from the road and 15 feet off the left side of the property line of each unit. 

First draft site plan proposal

Although the overall plan is free flowing, the placement of each dwelling unifies and creates organization and stability.  Each unit is designed with a porch facing a connecting path or road in the community.  This conscious arrangement, of unit and porch, encourages social interaction between neighbors and passersby. 

We utilized approximately 60% of the footprint for indoor space with the remaining 40% for outdoor, although this varies with the different housing types (1-4 bedroom houses). 

We also utilized a sawtooth type roofing system to allow light into more areas of the house while also providing additional ventilation.