Housing Design for Ex-Pat/Retiree

We were given the assignment to begin schematic design for one client type for our project in Fond-des-Blanc, Haiti. Our team chose to design a house for an Ex-patriate  couple moving to this rural area to retire.

In our design for the Ex-patriates we focused on creating a house that is peaceful, connecting the resident with nature. We emphasized this serene experience in the relationship of the porch to living area and the main entry sequence. Our group attempted to interlock the porch zone to the living area through openness, making the porch and living into a more continuous space.  The front porch is the large, to be used as a social gathering porch, facing the pedestrian promenade. The back porch is to be used more privately, reserved for family and close friends. We kept the public areas of the house very open to make the space feel larger for the user. We divided the kitchen and living with a small partition of bamboo to create a visual barrier without the solidity and harshness of a wall. We are still considering how we can apply this idea to other interior walls of the house. 

After our critique, we realized many of the improvements that need to be made in our housing design. One issue was how we had placed closets and bathrooms on the exterior wall of the house, rather than moving them to the interior for better cross ventilation. Another suggestion was to make one porch more prominent instead of having two. We also realized the need for another full bath for guests visiting overnight. Overall, several spaces in the plan need to be shifted and our concept needs to be brought through the whole house in a cohesive way. 

Young Professionals (Patriots)

The emphasis of this design is to create darker interior spaces and promote natural ventilation.  We saw this house being located on the southern end of the site on the riverside near the commercial zone.  A solid wall is located on the south elevation to prevent direct sunlight from penetrating the interior and to reduce the amount of noise from the commercial area.  The other facades are more open, allowing the user the option to ventilate or light the home.  The porches are located on the northeast and northwest corners of the home in order to promote the views and relations to neighbors to the north.

The kitchen is located on the west side of the home (the back) giving access to an outdoor cooking area if needed.  The house also has a "jack & jill" for the residents, and a half bath for guests.  Also, the house has a "fly roof" in order to flush out the hot air that accumulates under the roof from solar heat gain.  However, the design needs to be reworked.  The living room is too small and the hallways take up too much area in the home.  The bathrooms need to be adjacent in order to have a unified wet wall.  Most importantly, the design needs a more solid concept.

Housing Design Proposal

Expatriate Housing Programming 

Our team signed up to work on the expatriate housing programming.  We used two methods of diagramming to portray our interpretation of program relations.  The first was a more simple, quick look at what spaces are related, a "bubble" diagram.  The connections made could either be because the spaces should be attached for circulation, or more functional aspects like sharing a plumbing wall.

The second diagram, an Adjacency Matrix, is a much more in depth look into how each program is related to every other space in the house.  We decided to created four categories to help us define these relations.  Adjacent, or primary the primary connection, means that the spaces should be attached for convenience or functional purposes.  Nearby is a secondary connection, and not adjacent means that the spaces should not or would not be near each other in the house for privacy reasons or for front/back placement within the house. Not related are simply spaces that do not have an important correlation.

Expatriate House Design Scheme

After defining these adjacencies we diagrammed a layout for how we could achieve everything on our list, as well as focusing on passive ventilation and creating a private courtyard.

When designing this house, our team thought about the site plan and about the multiple driveways and pedestrian paths that border many of the lots. In thinking about an expatriate coming back to Haiti after living in the US for a while, we thought they might have grown accustomed to the American standard of a private backyard.  So, we wanted to create a house plan that would give them a sense of privacy with a courtyard in the back of the house.  If they want to lay down outside and read a book and not feel like everyone can see them, or even if they want to open up all the doors to the courtyard and truly blur the definition between interior and exterior, then they can do so without everyone being able to see inside.

Another aspect of this courtyard, and "H" shape plan arrangement is that it helps to promote passive ventilation, a leading factor in our house design.  With each branch of this house being single loaded, cross ventilation is easily achieved.  The bathrooms are pulled from the main form to obtain cross ventilation, as apposed to only having one window in the bathroom wall and having more stagnant air.  Also when designing the roof plan and gables, we added a clerestory for stack ventilation. 

Ex-Patriot Retiree's Home

Street View

Being tasked with creating a home for a retiree returning to Haiti from the states gave us a long list of criteria that helped shape this preliminary design of this home. Our main driver was DENSITY VS OPENNESS, meaning that we wanted all of the social spaces (kitchen, dining, living and porch) to be adjacent and zoned to one side of the home, while the private spaces (bedroom and bathrooms) would be located on the other end of the home in a densely packed zone.

Floor PlanWe felt that we could best express a sense of openness in the social spaces by opening up the walls with either vent block, or glass doors. In this way, we hope that the entire west side of the home would become a living room for entertaining and a space for enjoying the beautiful weather of Fond-Des-Blancs.

New Plan and SectionAfter reviewing this iteration, we decided we could open up the home even more if we allowed the wall of doors to fold up on each other and collapse to the sides. This would allow the living and dining to spill onto the porch, making it usable all year long. We chose to let the butterfly roof dictate our "wet" spaces by placing the kitchen and both bathrooms adjacent to the point where rainwater would be collected. This also creates a clear datum that emphasizes the separation of social and private, or even, openness vs dense.

A House for a Moon Dazzler: A Study of Ventilation, Material, and Indoor/Outdoor Relationships

Location: Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Function: Residential
Client: Benjamin Garcia Saze’s mother
Construction Cost: USD 40,000
Main Material: Bamboo
Completed: 2010
Architect: Benjamin Garcia Saxe

The Bamboo House, designed by Benjamin Garcia Saxe, is the perfect example of a natural atmosphere. Concepts behind this design, such as natural ventilation, ample shade, and sustainable materials, are great ideas to think about in our design for Haiti.

The one bedroom home allows the interior and exterior to coexist. The bedroom is located on one end and a kitchen and living space are located on the opposite end. The two spaces are separated by an open courtyard.

Roofs for both main areas are made of bamboo rings covered in burlap that open up underneath the larger tin protective roof. The roofs give the appearance of being detached and raised above the rooms.

The open air construction and the large overhanging tin roofs allow for natural air ventilation but still provide ample shade from the hot sun.

A New Start, A New Life

The earth violently begins to shake, interrupting my math lesson.  The children begin to scream and cry.  My throat closes shut as my heart sinks down to the pit of my stomach.  The tremors grow in scale, land feels like the swells of the sea, and the walls begin to crumble.  I gather all of the children and try to get them outside just when the roof starts to cave in and… I jump.  I’m lying in a pool of sweat in my bed.  I wonder when these memories, these nightmares will subside.

It’s been four years since the earthquake in Haiti.  I hope and pray for a return to normal, but our lives have been forever changed: all of the lives lost, the crippled, the paralyzed, and all of the rubble trashing our land.  There is no normal to return to.

I was a teacher in Port au Prince until the earthquake.  I taught at École Saint-Léon, a very large school with a pretty low drop out rate for Haiti.  I loved my job, teaching those bright young faces.  Some of them were beginning to get quite proficient in English and Spanish. I was so proud of them.

Then it happened.  I tried to get the children outside, and many of them managed to make it despite all of the difficulty.  The rest were inside with me when the second floor fell on top of us.  Only one third of my class survived the event, and many of them were crippled or lost limbs.

I was lucky to be alive, but I did not understand why God would save me and not more children, those brilliant, sweet children.  It took three years of living in a tent community for me to wrap my mind around this.  It was then that I heard about Jean Thomas and the neighborhood he was developing in Fond des Blancs.  Also, that he was opening a secondary school and was looking for teachers to employ.  I knew then that God had a plan for my life.  I am to continue teaching there in Fond des Blancs, helping the future of this country.

After my abrupt awakening I get out of bed and start my daily routine.  I shower and get dressed, and then I go make myself some breakfast in the kitchen where I spend some time with my roommates, three other teachers at the school.

Since none of us have cars we get a ride to school everyday.  It is very nice to not have to walk the filthy streets of Port au Prince everyday now.

At school I enjoy every minute with the children in my class.  I am so thankful that they are all so eager to learn.  If anyone of them were to drop out I would personally go to their house and try to reason with them and their family to keep them in school.  We need the next generation to be well educated for the progress of our country.

Sometimes after school I like to walk home instead of ride with the carpool.  It gives me some time with the kids outside of the class room, because some of them live near me.  We talk and joke about all kinds of things.  It is great to have such joy again.

When I am home I can relax on my porch and grade my student’s homework, and when I am finished I can do some reading, studying of my own.  I believe that my education is never complete.  I can always learn something.  There is so much out there to study.  

Thanks to Jean Thomas I have found happiness again.  I have three wonderful roommates, a great community of friends, wonderful students, and a new outlook on life.