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COURSE GUIDE

Considerations of regenerative design principals

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“Deye monn, gin monn.” or “Beyond mountains, more mountains.”

This age old Haitian proverb has taken on a new meaning following the political, natural and economic factors which have afflicted the nation over the past century. However it was originally intended to describe the unique terrain of the Island nation of Haiti. The past century has seen the eradication of all but 2% of Haiti’s trees and bamboo is being increasingly grown as a solution not just in binding the exposed hillsides, but as a light weight material for construction.

The Haiti Visiting School uses this unique terrain as the setting for a design workshop which asks students to design a vision for bamboo architecture in Haiti. Working in small groups each team will be asked to design a bamboo campus for a hillside site in Kenscoff 12km South of Port au Prince.

Over the course of the ten day workshop students will be exposed to 3d modelling software and parametric programs which can test both the material characteristics and their response to the extreme seismic and climatic context of the site. Students will also be taught and expected to use representation programs such as Adobe Creative Suite to at the end of the course present their proposals in the a competition format to a panel made up of local designers, international architects and the local community.

The teaching staff will comprise of a formidable force of both local and international architects, engineers, artists and horticultur-ists will form an impressive base of knowledge of local culture, bamboo material characteristics and 3D design software.

Some of the most prominent features which the participants will be exposed to during the course include: • Teaching team: The teaching staff comprises of working architects and graduates of all levels of the AA School. The tutor student ratio of 6:1 allows the opportunity to for students to directly engage with persons from all over the world whom have worked for some of the largest and most sought after architectural practices.

• Software exposure: Students will be required to already have a basic knowledge of Rhinoceros. They will be able to supplement their 3D skillset with intensive workshops and regular exposure to advanced Rhinoceros, grasshopper, climatic analysis softwares, and presentation tools.

• Competition format: Students will work in small groups to articulate the brief and map the site in an initial form finding exercise. These teams will be expected to develop these and present them in a professional competition manner to the potential client, local and international architects, local artists and community leaders.

• Lecture series: To supplement the workshop a wide array of architectural and cultural lectures will be delivered by local professionals. This aims to embolden the students work with an architectural knowledge of bamboo and the local vernacular, as well as the history of this uniquely vibrant location and culture.

• Cultural events: Visits to local artists’ studios, lectures by local artists about the history of and culture of Haiti as well as an opening night food and football event will give a lively introduction and context to the workshop.

AA Haiti Visiting School 2014Wynne Farm, Kenscoff, Haiti

Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK2 - 12 January 2014

EXPERIMENTAL BAMBOO

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Application of bamboo to the form

Using Falcon software to perform climatic analysis on a form

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BRIEF

The aim of the course is to push students to consider and experiment with the limits of bamboo as a construction material for Haiti, as well as engaging students in the design methodology of the AA.

Throughout the course students will be allowed to use software they feel works best for them at each stage. For each stage there will be tutorials and we will encourage you to work in the software mentioned at each stage.

Stage 1 - SiteSite dynamic mapping

Working in groups of 3 students will go on site in the wilderness of Kenscoff a forested area to the South of Port au Prince. Here the unique alpine climate mixed with views over the city, spectrum of changing colours over the day and the black of the night will all provide you, the mapper, with a range of dynamic parameters which can all be found, mapped and quantified.

A few examples could be: Sight, sound, materiality, temperature, light, wind, moisture etc...

Stage 2 - FormTranslation from data to form

Software workshops: Rhinoceros 1.1, Grasshopper 1.1

The raw information from the initial site mapping exercise will be taken forward and used to generate a form through a series of scripting templates on Grasshopper and 3D software tutorials on Rhinoceros. This will be an opportunity to engage students in the software capabilities but at the same time program the same morphologies digitally, expressing site parameters formally.

Stage 3 - UtilityIntroduction of a program to the form

Software workshops: Rhinoceros 1.2, Grasshopper 1.2

Groups will then be asked to speculate and imagine their groups morphology and its relevance, adaption, potential to articulate the specific programmatic requirements of the client, site and wider Haitian context. What relevance if any does the form posses to vernacular circulation, vernacular occupational styles and what balance can your group build between morphological represen-tation, and building function.

Stage 4 - HaitiFormal climatic analysis

Software workshops: Rhinoceros 3D 1.3 Vasari, Ecotect, Falcon

Groups will then, through an intensive workshop in a number of climatic softwares, be asked to refine their forms through a series of tests. This then allows the group to argue the ability of their proposal to be resilient to the extreme climatic context of Haiti.

Stage 5 - MaterialFormal articulation though bamboo

Software workshops: Grasshopper 1.3

In the final stage of the workshop students will be asked to put their knowledge and thought into how bamboo, as the material of choice, can be applied to their proposal. How can the form and with that the interior functionality and exterior climatic resilience still be articulated through the use of a versatile yet sometimes restrictive material.

Final Jury

All groups are required to present 3 A1 boards as well as a slideshow presentation. Boards will be curated with tutors over the week and will talk about site, the formal design process and diagrammatically explain how bamboo can be used to construct the building.

Each group will then have the opportunity to present their projects to a group of assembled architects, horticulturists, community leaders, local artists, and cultural figures. This is an opportunity to explain both design decisions as well as state how they believe this building works for the both the site and the wider propagation of bamboo architecture in Haiti. As the proposal is for a specific site, the long term hope, depending on further funding, is to test the design at 1 to 1 scale.

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TIMETABLE

Day 1• Tutorintroductions.• Briefisgivenout.• Sitevisitforphotosandlearningaboutthesite.• VisitBambooprojectbyUNinPortauPrince.• PeguyVilletomeetLesAteliersGanthiersandtheirstudio.• Footballmatch,foodanddrinkinPeguyVille.

Day 2• Breakintogroupsof3.• Sitevisit,mapandsurveythesitefordynamicfactors.Whatdoeseachgroupfindinterestingaboutthesite?• Correlateanddiagraminformation.• BasicRhinotutorial,showhowRhinocanbeusedasboth3Dand2Dsoftware.• Tutorprojectpresentation.

Day 3• Workdaytutorsonhandtoansweranyquestionsondiagrammingandthebrief.• InDesignandpresentationskillstutorial.• Grasshoppertutorial.• Tutorprojectpresentation.

Day 4• Workdaytutorsonhandtoworkwithgroupstogeneratea3Dformallogicfromsitemappeddata.• HorticulturistLecture-WorkinagronomyandtheenvironmentaltasksfacingHaiti,puttingthedesignbriefintothe wider context of moving away from concrete buildings.• Tutorprojectpresentation.

Day 5• InterimJurytodiscussresultsandproposedirectionforabuildingdesign.• Lecturebyabambooarchitectontheirwork.(Lecturertobeconfirmed)• Discussthedesignbriefprograminrelationtotheformsgeneratedfromsitemapping.

Day 6• Lectureabouttheprinciplesofearthquakeresilientdesign.• Hurricanesoftwaretutorial,Falcon,Vasari,Ecotect,whichsoftwaretouseandhowtotestforms.• Designtutorialshowbamboocanbeusedtoarticulateeachgroupsformgeneratedoverthepastdays.

Day 7• Additionaltutorialshowbamboocanbeusedtoarticulateeachgroupsformgeneratedoverthepastdays.• Culturallecture,anartistworkinginPortauPrincewithapersonalstoryoftheearthquakein2010-LifeinPortau Prince and the role of art and design in Haitian Culture.

Day 8 and 9• Productiondays,nostructuredtutorialsbuttutorsavailablefordiscussions.

Day 10• Longtutorialswitheachgroup,discusspresentationsandanswerdesignquestions.• 3A1printshandedinby3pmtosendtoprintersinPétion-Ville.

Day 11• FinalJurywithalltutorsandinvitedcrtitics.

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Originally from South Shields in the North of England, John graduated from the Architectural Associa-tion, London. His continuing research to promote bamboo architecture in Haiti has seen him travel widely through the country working with landowners to promote bamboo construction and cultivation. In 2013 this work won him both the AA Holloway Prize and the Fosters Prize for Sustainable Development, following which his work was widely published.John has worked in London, Paris and Beijing for firms including MAD, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, and rarearchitects.HehastaughtattheArchitecturalAssociation(London),TsinghuaUniversity(Beijing),Sin-gaporePolytechnic(Singapore)andtheLeedsSchoolofArchitecture(UK).HenowdirectstheAAVisitingSchool in Haiti.

Aditya is currently a Part II Architect at Cullinan Studio in London. He gained his undergraduate degree at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and his Diploma at the Architectural Association School of Architec-ture. While at the Architectural Association he was awarded the Foster+Partners and AA prize for Infrastruc-ture and Sustainability 2011.Aditya is interested in exploring the role of the architect in humanitarian and socio-politically complex situations. He has worked with various NGO’s and charities as well as the UN to deliver and develop both architectural projects and consultation tools.While working internationally for architecture practices such as Grimshaw Architects and Foster+ Partners, Aditya pursued his interests in infrastructure and political lobbying. He was part of the design team for the Lubetkin Prize winning Casa Kike at Gianni Botsford Architects.

Diego Perez-Espitia is a registered Colombian architect. He graduated with honours from University of Los Andes(2000)andobtainedhisMastersdegreeinArchitectureandUrbanismwithathesisonParametricUrbanismattheArchitecturalAssociation’sDesignResearchLab(2008).Forthelastsevenyearshisworkhas focused on the application of algorithmic design techniques at a wide range of urban and architecture design projects. Diego has worked for Zaha Hadid Architects and MAD Architects, where he founded and lead the Parametric Design Team. He is now founding partner at PerezReiter Architects, based in Colombia and Austria, where he currently explores the potentials and constraints of generative design and digital fabrication through architecture and interior design commissions. Diego has taught at University of Los Andes(Bogota),TsinghuaUniversity(Beijing)andtheArchitecturalAssociation(London),andhaslecturedat universities and design institutes in Colombia, Wales, England, Turkey and China. He is Director of the AA Bogota Visiting School.

RosegraduatedfromtheUniversityofSouthernCaliforniain2008withaBachelorofArchitecturedegree.During her time at USC, Rose travelled extensively through Southeast Asia, observing and studying the adaptive modernization of densely populated countries in which the extremes of the economic spectrum are visible. Paired with a team of students from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Rose worked to develop sensitive, site specific architectural solutions for over-crowded, under-funded schools in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Professionally, Rose has worked in Beijing, China, where her projects ranged in scale from single family residential projects, to urban art installations, cultural centres and large scale commercial developments. She currently lives and works in Los Angles, California.

John Osmond Naylor AA DipArchitectural AssociationLondon , UK

Aditya Aachi AA Dip Cullinan StudioLondon, UK

Diego Perez EspitiaPerezReiter ArchitectsBogota, Colombia

Rose Di Sarno MAGenslerLos Angels, USA

TUTORS

AA Haiti Visiting SchoolArchitectural Association School of Architecture

36 Bedford SquareLondon

WC1B 3ESUnited Kingdom

+44 (0)20 7887 4014visitingschool@aaschool.ac.uk

Wynne FarmWynne Farm Ecological Reserve

Kenscoff 97#5AHaiti

info@wynnefarm.org

Wynne Farm Ecological Reserve – Haiti