AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GALRI GROUP

TRANSFORMATIVE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS FOR HAITI

www.galrigroup.com

galrigroup@gmail.com

WHAT IS GALRI? GALRI is a joint venture association of San Francisco Bay Area architects who have been working in Haiti since January of 2010 in collaboration with Haitian professionals and citizens.

The name GALRI comes from the Kreyol work for veranda or porch, that essential Haitian place that mediates between the private interior and the public community life.

We are focused on cultural connection and environmental sustainability as vital sparks in regeneration and redevelopment.

GALRI PROVIDES:

TOWN & SITE PLANNING

ARCHITECTURE & BUILDING DESIGN

CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION

GALRI VISION: We integrate global best practices with local knowledge, to help regenerate and sustain Haiti's built and natural environment.

GALRI OBJECTIVES:

We leverage international development resources with local knowledge and networks

We facilitate sustainable, culturally connected planning and design in public and private initiatives to revitalize the cities and towns of post-earthquake Haiti

GALRI IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS:

We identify and match development opportunities with entitlements, capital and human resources.

We implement sustainable, culturally connected planning, design and construction.

We preserve, restore and enhance Haiti’s unique cultural, landscape for economic engagement with world markets.

We help civil servants, property owners, investors and local stakeholders integrate, leverage and balance economic, environmental and social returns on investment.

We bring market-driven solutions that will help Haiti emerge onto the world stage as a desirable destination for investment.

We establish effective linkages among international and local higher education institutions to improve professional preparation in planning, design, engineering and construction and enhance economic opportunity for younger citizens of Haiti.

GINGERBREAD

REDEVELOPMENT

“LEGENDS OF HAITI”

GALRI Restoration Vision for the “Castel Fleuri” in Port au Prince

Haiti's historic Gingerbread Houses embody an extraordinary exhibition of architectural artistry, and provide both a touchstone and a beacon for the efforts to rebuild and regenerate Port au Prince and Haiti.

Designed and built in the early 20th century by Haitian born architects who had studied in France, and utilizing a resilient hybrid of timber frame and masonry construction, they are uniquely ornamented and ingeniously climatically responsive.

The Gingerbreads thus exemplify a global high water mark of African American and Creole environmental culture. However, although they are acknowledged as world treasures of art and building, and have proved remarkably resilient in the wake of the January 2010 earthquake, many are in danger of vanishing, through neglect, demolition, redevelopment and a lack of awareness of their significance and exceptionality.

The Gingerbreads provide a wonderful model of the creative power of Creole culture, as a regional amalgam of globally transmitted African, European, and American threads, that is inherently responsive to local circumstance, including in terms of climate, materials and construction technology--in other words "sustainable".

An ambitious joint endeavor, of historical preservation and education, of conserving and restoring these buildings, raising awareness of their particularly rich cultural legacy, would re-introduce the best of Haiti, its "Legends" to the world.

Galri is currently working with international hospitality experts on developing economic, planning, architectural and restoration plans that will preserve and nourish these "Legends" through the 21st Century, and leverage their splendor as a prime catalyst for Haiti's redevelopment.

THE URBAN VILLAGE MODEL

GALRI Preliminary Sketch for Port au Prince Urban Village Model

The "Urban Village Model" is an integrated system for developing, building and maintaining the physical environment of small self managed communities in urban settings. In Haiti, the "Urban Village" is a cohesive physical and social whole--a mini-neighborhood--primarily residential, centered around a shared open space --- "Lakou" in Kreyol.

The Urban Village Model is not a Disney-like "model village." Rather, it is a systematic method to identify, configure and build housing that creates vibrant communities. Key elements include: integrated planning, design, engineering and construction, on site prototyping with residents, independent infrastructure, and adoption of dynamic social and market channels for scaling and adaptation.

GALRI Building Types Study for Urban Village Model

Several key Haitian Kreyol environmental patterns are manifested in the Urban Village Model, including:

"Nuovo Lakou"--a modernization of the traditional Haitian courtyard

Landscape stewardship--integrating private and shared open spaces with landscape restoration

A diversity of building types, including Creole Townhouses, "Kay Chamhot" (tall house) and "Ti Kay" (small house)

"Galri" (veranda) extended outdoor living spaces

"Jaden pre kay" (kitchen gardens)

Property line hedgerows & gates

METROPOLITAN PORT AU PRINCERESIDENTIAL VILLAGES

GALRI Preliminary Sketch for Metropolitan Port au Prince Residential Village

The residential villages are sited on multi-acre "greenfield" parcels within commuting distance of downtown Port au Prince.

The Haitian residential village synthesizes Haitian and American medium density "suburban" models. Preliminary studies demonstrate capacity for several hundred dwellings, with connections to local commercial and work centers, as well as social, institutional and recreational facilities.

The house types would vary in scale and configuration, from small homes to estate lots, with potential also for modestly scaled apartment and mixed use buildings. Each typical lot accommodates two dwelling units.

Existing trees, natural watercourses and other landscape features will to be restored and enhanced. A connected grid of streets and blocks will be integrated with the site's existing topography and landscape. The residential core of the villages would be developed initially, providing a resilient foundation for incremental infill growth.

GALRI Preliminary Sketch for Residential Village Typical Lot Configuration

Civic patterns in the residential villages include:•A healthy mix of residential & working life•Connection to neighboring infrastructure networks•Integrated energy, water, waste, transportation and communications management

Architectural and building patterns in the residential villages include: •A diversity of building types & scales•Safe, durable & culturally connected construction methods & materials

Landscape repair patterns in the residential villages include:•A garden network at a range of scales•Tree lined streets and property line hedgerows, as part of an integrated water resource system

INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

GALRI /URBIMPLANT© Integrated Infrastructure Management System

URBIMPLANT© in Downtown Port au Prince Block Context

URBIMPLANT© in Downtown Port au Prince Block Context

URBIMPLANT© in Downtown Port au Prince Block Context

CURRENT PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT

THE WHAT IF PROGRAM

What if Courtyard

The What If Foundation was founded in 2000 to support food and education programs for impoverished children in Port-au-Prince. The food program started small, but grew steadily and now feeds more than 500 children per day in the Ti Plas Kazo neighborhood. Its school scholarship program provides 200 scholarships annually. Education and nutrition together are essential to break the hold that poverty has on a majority of children in Haiti.

Recognizing the paramount importance of education, and how inaccessible it is for the poor in Haiti, the What If Foundation has undertaken the building and operating its own school instead of simply providing scholarships. The school and cafeteria will serve 500 students, K-13. The food program will continue for the students, as well as maintaining programs for the larger community, including access to an multi-purpose/auditorium space for community events.

The What If Foundation has partnered with a team from Builders Without Borders, led by the GALRI member, architect Martin Hammer, to design and oversee the construction of the approximately one million dollar project, with construction slated to start in the Fall of 2012.

The design addresses the project’s functional needs, is engineered for both earthquakes and hurricanes, meets the challenges of a sloping urban site, and is responsive to climate and culture with its use of the open open but shaded Galri for circulation.

The project will include Photovoltaic electricity, rainwater catchment, and dehydrating toilets. The building will be constructed using reinforced concrete block with crushed rubble aggregate, bamboo roof framing in the Galri, and plastered straw-clay panels in the second story walls.

MEDICORP CLINIC& HOUSING PROTOTYPES

MEDICORP Clinic

These projects are being implemented as a collaboration between the University of San Francisco Architecture and Community Design International Outreach Program under the direction of GALRI member Seth Wachtel, and Medicorp, a non-profit community partner in Haiti. This prototype primary care clinic and attendant housing provides Haitian communities with access to health care in structurally safe, efficiently designed and culturally connected buildings.

The clinic is designed to be familiar and inviting, climatically comfortable, and structurally able to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. It is to serve as a place of comfort, hope and safety for the community.

The attendant dwellings are located in proximity to the Health Clinic, providing housing for health care workers. Various configurations of this complex of housing and health services are intended to be deployed throughout Haiti.

Construction details that apply current engineering standards to an adaptation of the historic Gingerbread/Columbage building type found in Port au Prince, Jacmel and other Haitian cities are being developed with the engineering team. The timber laced masonry system is both beautiful and seismically and hurricane resistant.

PATTERNS:KREYOL LIVING WISDOM

Kreyol Living Wisdom Building Types Research

We call the essential patterns of the Haitian environmental legacy “Kreyol Living Wisdom”. They are a touchstone and inspiration for rebuilding, a magnet for investment, and a priceless stake in establishing Haiti’s full partnership on the world stage.

Kreyol Living Wisdom is the means by which culturally connected reconstruction and development can actually happen. It is the way that ordinary Haitian citizens can shape the truly sustainable regeneration of their country, through empowering and leveraging the legacy of their native experience and intelligence.

Kreyol Living Wisdom must be thoroughly documented, archived and disseminated, in order to best fulfill its full potential.

TEN ESSENTIAL PATTERNS:

The question--What can Haiti teach us?--has guided our work. It is based on really looking at how Haitians have actually best lived in and crafted their environment, as well as their dreams and aspirations to a healthier society. We have focused on ten essential patterns that represent the full spectrum of this knowledge. These patterns, on three levels of scale include:

TOWNS: 1. Landscape Stewardship2. Living Off the Land 3. Kreyol Settlement Structure4. The Lakou

BUILDINGS:5. The Galri (Porch)6. The Jaden (Garden)7. Rural Building Models8. Urban Building Models

CONSTRUCTION:9. Color, Pattern & Ornament10. Kreyol Architecture

Kreyol Settlment Structure—Cap Hatien

Kreyol Settlement Structure—The Market Street

The Galri (Jacmel)

The Jaden (Jacmel)

Urban Building Types (Jacmel)

Color, Pattern & Ornament

Kreyol Architecture

GALRI CORE TEAM

Christopher Robin Andrews Architect & Town Planner, GALRI Executive Director

Christopher is an architect and town planner with three decades of experience. His practice, based in Oakland California focuses on environmentally sustainable and culturally connected design.

Seth Wachtel Environmental Designer & Builder, Director of the Architecture and Community Design Program, University of San Francisco, GALRI Education & Community Design Liaison

Seth is the Director of the Architecture and Community Design Program at the University of San Francisco. Professor Wachtel runs the Community Design Outreach, International Projects, and Innovation Lab courses at USF, which provide students the opportunity to work on real world design/build projects for underrepresented communities both locally and internationally. Over the past year and a half he has been working on several projects in Haiti, including a health clinic prototype for Medicorp International and an orphanage in Carrefour.

Martin Hammer, Architect GALRI International Project Manager

Throughout his career Martin has focused on sustainable building design, including the use of passive solar, photovoltaic electricity, solar hot water, rammed earth, rainwater and grey water systems, with particular focus on the design, engineering, testing, and construction of super-insulated-wall straw bale buildings.

Since February 2010 he has worked extensively in post-earthquake Haiti. Martin was a member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s second reconnaissance team in Haiti, and was one of five team members with the World Monuments Fund and FOKAL (Fondasyon Konesans ak Libète) assessing the Gingerbread houses of Port-au-Prince in a historic preservation effort. Since June 2010 Martin has been leading a team from Builders Without Borders developing, promoting, and implementing sustainable rebuilding solutions for Haiti.

Frank Giunta GALRI Project Strategy, Development & Management Coordinator

At the University of California, Berkeley / College of Engineering, Frank directed the college-wide contract and grant portfolio ($150M), its international industry liaison program, and development of the Richmond (CA) research center, recently selected to become as the second campus of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As principal of the knowledge-based economic development consultancy Connaissance International, past domestic engagements include: University of Oregon, University of Missouri-Rolla, Eau Claire (WI) Industrial Development Council, University of Pennsylvania, and consortia of universities in St. Louis, MO and Newark, NJ, the latter three with Eva Klein Associates. International engagements include Marmara Science Park, Istanbul, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, TechnoPark Malaysia, and City of Knowledge, former Panama Canal Zone, Panama, with EKA and the Academy of Educational Development. Since 2000 Frank has served as board president of Artship Foundation, San Francisco.

GALRI STRATEGIC PARTNERS

Randolph LangenbachGALRI Senior AdvisorArchitectural, Engineering & Environmental Historian

Randolph has become known for his seminal work on traditional construction in earthquake areas. He is author and photographer for the 2009 UNESCO book Don’t Tear It Down! Preserving the Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture of Kashmir. In 2010, he led a technical team to Haiti to survey damage to the historic Gingerbread Houses in Port-au-Prince for the World Monuments Fund, and is co-author and principle photographer for the book from that mission published by the WMF: Preserving Haiti’s Gingerbread Houses. Between 1992–2004, he served as Senior Analyst for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). More recently, he has served as visiting professor at the University of Brescia in Italy.

Frederick Mangones Architect, AD

Frederick is a Haitian Architect with 40 years of varied and extensive experience in Haiti and internationally, in urban planning, architectural design, project management, historic preservation and restoration, management and supervision of civil engineering projects and general construction. Notable work includes preliminary study of the Citadelle Restoration Project, design and construction management of TELECO Headquarters at Pont Morin, and management of several lots of the General Drainage Plan of Port-au-Prince. He has done historic preservation work in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Granada, Antigua, and Cuba. Frederick has served as Assistant Director and Project Director of l'Institut de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National (ISPAN) in particular in the ISPAN/UNESCO Project of Parc National Historique Citadelle Sans-Souci Ramiers , and has served as President of Haiti Habitat, S.A. He has been a Partner at "Mangonés & Associés" and is currently President of AD Architecture et Developpement. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University, where he also has served as Visiting Professor. He is Secretary of the Association Haïtienne des Architectes et des Urbanistes, and a member of the Association des Ingénieurs et Architectes.

Manuel KnightTourism Advisor and Economic Analyst

Manuel has over three decades of international experience in the field of physical planning and development for tourism projects, including market & financial feasibility studies, master planning and development of hotels, resort complexes as well entire destinations and related infrastructures. He has conducted assignments in over 75 countries and is experienced in assessing investment opportunities and risks in developing economies. Through positions in US, UK, French and Japanese firms Manuel's experience for various donor agencies and commercial property developers, is extensive. With solid knowledge of international travel markets, of tourism operations, and of the dynamics of investment, he can strengthen destination development master plans, tourism project strategies and scrutinize income streams and asset valuations, to ensure that they reflect reality.

Jonathan DavolReal Estate Economic Analyst

With his Rockville Maryland consulting firm Jon has done market, economic, and financial feasibility consulting for numerous residential developments including condominiums, rental apartment buildings, and single-family subdivisions. He brings a broad understanding of the market forces affecting residential development in new construction, renovation and rehabilitation. His experience includes residential development for households of all income levels, from affordable housing for low-income households, to luxury-level apartments and homes. Jon has primarily consulted for private developers, investors, and lenders in the private sector, but he has also done some tourism consulting for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Jordan. and on worked on studies funded by the U.S. Trade Development Agency and International Finance Corporation.

Claude AlexandreHaiti Business Development Liaison

Based in Los Angeles, and with a deep rooted connection to his Haitian upbringing, Claude is an accomplished executive with both extensive business and non-profit leadership experience. Highly creative in connecting stakeholders from the public, private and social sectors, he has served as President and Chief Financial Officer for several companies. With a background in new business development, strategic and operational planning, equity funding, and major gifts cultivation, Claude has significant global and national contacts, networks, and affiliations generated from work with international relief and non-profit institutions. He is a resourceful leader with a distinctive ability to align and inspire people to achieve possibility-oriented outcomes.

TRANSFORMATIVE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS FOR HAITI

www.galrigroup.comgalrigroup@gmail.com

USA tel: 510.355.6401Port au Prince/Haiti tel: 509.3773.3978