Archinect - News

What architects have learned from rebuilding Port-au-Prince

2015-07-02T14:31:00-04:00

In the five-and-a-half years since an earthquake killed more than 220,000 people here and displaced 1.5 million more, most of headlines from Haiti’s capital have been about dysfunctional projects, mismanagement and the overall slow pace of reconstruction. Yet some innovative urban development work is going on here, often under the radar.

Previously:

Four years and half a billion dollars later, the Red Cross has built six houses in Haiti

2015-06-04T17:52:00-04:00

Many residents live in shacks made of rusty sheet metal, without access to drinkable water, electricity or basic sanitation. When it rains, their homes flood and residents bail out mud and water. [...] The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people. But the actual number of permanent homes the group has built in all of Haiti: six. After the earthquake, Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern unveiled ambitious plans to "develop brand-new communities." None has ever been built.

On the Ground: UCLA's new IDEAS campus

2013-12-03T19:12:00-05:00

Archinect recently took a field trip to Playa Vista, a quiet community minutes from the ocean in west Los Angeles, to check out UCLA’s new satellite architecture campus, IDEAS. Entirely housed within a 13,000sqft airplane hangar, the campus is used by architecture students in the university’s SUPRASTUDIO program, a one-year MArch II that pairs students with industry and non-profit leaders to focus on an advanced research project. Since its first run in 2008, SUPRASTUDIO has tripled in size and offerings, now composed of 41 students working in studios led by Gehry Partners/Gehry Technologies, Greg Lynn, and Thom Mayne/The Now Institute.

A far cry from the hilly green labyrinth of UCLA’s Westwood campus, the IDEAS hangar formerly belonged to famed aviation magnate Howard Hughes, and now plays neighbor to Los Angeles’ YouTube Space (and nearby Google in Venice). The Playa Vista community is still very new, first developed in the early aughts as part of President Bill Clinton’s init...

University of Miami School of Architecture hosts competition to rebuild Haitian cathedral

2012-12-20T13:08:00-05:00

[...] the University of Miami School of Architecture, in partnership with the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince and Faith and Form Magazine, has organized a competition to choose the design for the new Cathedral. In the past year, 250 architects around the world have collaborated to submit 134 plans for the reconstruction.

Haiti Simbi Hubs Wins AA School and Foster + Partners Sustainability and Infrastructure Prize

2011-07-01T18:40:48-04:00

This year’s prize has been awarded to Aditya Aachi, of Diploma Unit 7, for his project 'Haiti Simbi Hubs'. The project proposes sanitation infrastructure for Haiti and draws on the unprecedented need for cooperation between the Haitian Government and NGOs to combat cholera outbreaks.