The Haitian Dream: Increasing the economic, social and environmental resilience of the hot and humid, high density urban Haitian neighbourhood by the implementation of climate responsive design

The Haitian Dream: Increasing the economic, social and environmental resilience of the hot and humid, high density urban Haitian neighbourhood by the implementation of climate responsive design

De Visser, E.J.

Van Timmeren, A. (mentor)
Bokel, R.M.J. (mentor)
Icibaci, L.M. (mentor)

Architecture

Building Technology

Green Building Innovation

2012-04-20

The event of the earthquake on January 12 2010 in Haiti has caused in a disaster which has shocked the world. It resulted in an estimated amount of 250.000 casualties and left over 1.000.000 people homeless. From these numbers it is clear that Haiti needs to become more resilient to hazards to prevent in a future repetition of this disaster. A study into Haiti’s history and present day situation shows that the disaster was not a result of a single problem. Multiple problems affect the country and not all can be solved by one research. That is why this research will focus on reigniting the Haitian building industry in a sustainable way by the production and application of building products produced with locally found or grown raw materials. Through this approach jobs will be created, the environmental degradation will be stopped and solid wastes diminished because of sustainable resource management. The choice of which building products will be produced focuses on the applicability within the local building industry which is in turn determined by the materialization of the buildings. The design of the buildings has failed in providing a safe and comfortable environment. The design of the built environment has to be changed into a climate responsive design which is resilient to hazards. We should design with the climate instead of against it. The results of the research will be tested through a design for a high density urban neighborhood of Haiti. The design will be evaluated on specific indicators from the resilience and sustainability theory and compared with the existing situation and another design solution from NGO’s. The evaluation shows that the climate responsive design, with a materialization of sustainable building products, diminishes the solid waste significantly at the afterlife of the building from 40% to only 6%. The design provides in a thermally comfortable indoor climate by the implementation of only passive means. The design has proven to be resilient to future natural and man-made hazards and will prevent in disaster. The research question is whether the Haitian building industry can be used as an economic growth stimulator to develop the country in a sustainable way. If the design of the thesis is implemented to cope with the urban growth of Port-au-Prince over a time period of 50 years, 9.124 housing blocks are needed. The demand for building materials will be immense: nearly 5,8 million ton. This demand will create jobs and increase the purchasing power of Haitians which will increase the wealth. The research proves that there is a huge potential for the building industry to be an economic growth stimulator and develop Haiti in a sustainable way. The development will be even more stimulated through a climate responsive design of the built environment which is resilient to hazards.

Haiti
post-disaster
climate responsive
sustainability
resilience to hazards

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d4139e5a-58b6-4157-a5a6-798e5949de71

2012-04-24

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2012 De Visser, E.J.