…by Vincent Callebaut architects re-envisages Haiti’s architectural future as one that is limitless with possibility for safe and sustainable innovation. The futuristic carbon neutral eco-village concept includes placing entire modular housing communities on top of massive earthquake-resistant concrete piers. Each house on the Coral Reef would have its own garden plot in order to grow food. All of the village would employ wind, solar and tidal power to generate electricity in a very natural way and hence help in reduction of carbon emissions.
If you got rid of all the Haitians.
Too true. This article is fit for “The Onion”, but even they’re too sanctimonious and politically correct.
And who would pay for this “architecture”??
Thanks Kate, lmao, your headlines,tag lines, storylines and the way ya says things, are the best on the internet.
Witness the gap between socialism’s polyanna view and reality. Yet they are the champions of all cultures are equal. Their mentality is akin to designing a square peg to fit a round hole.
They could call it “The Reservation”
My thoughts, if they built it, it would be stripped of every peice of valuble material and sold off.
Carbon-neutral?
What, the people who are supposed to live there are banned from breathing?
Carbon-neutral?
What, the people who are supposed to live there are banned from breathing?
Attended a meeting yesterday where the speaker has been involved in Haiti for the past 20 years.
Yes, the country is a basket case but he claims the news is being distorted because the media always uses Port au Prince as their focal point.
He claims the rural areas are better off but are ignored by the media. Very little of the monetary aid promised by Canada has been dispursed as Ottawa doesn’t want Haiti to piss it all away in one shot. Most is being witheld for long-term infrastructure projects.
Seems reasonable to me if we are going to offer aid. Offering aid in the first place is another story altogether.
Yeah, it could work because we know of how all the other successful housing projects have turned out. Maybe Canada could ship Vancouver’s Olympic Village there, a piece at a time and let the Haitians put them back together.
Actually, now that I think of it, letting them put their own sweat equity into their housing might be the ticket.
Massive disconnect. The sad thing is, these people are serious
Big plans form a green lefty again, someone ring a bell.
from a green lefty
You must remember that not only are the Haitians, Haitians, but they also speak French. Check out any former French Colony and tell me what you see.
The best thing we could do for Haiti is put a rope around it and tow over to Africa where it belongs.
I’ve always wondered why decommissioned shipping containers weren’t commonly used as housing and shelter in areas such as Haiti. There’s no shortage of them, and with a little cutting and welding would make decent homes. Certainly more economical and practical than all these fantasy renderings we see from politically correct architects.
…but what do I know, I’m just a simple & practical engineer who doesn’t appreciate the vital importance of aesthetics and “eco-village” concept in a place like Haiti.
The Vincent Callebaut architectural firm would be wise to join forces with Choclaterie Bernard Callebaut and build the entire project out of yummy Belgian chocolate.
An obvious benefit would be edible rubble when the next earthquake strikes.
Remember the several billion carbon units too many mother Gaia has on her weak shoulders?…The Haitians, just like the Africans are on the environazi’s list for future ‘dissinfection’…That coral reef village is for the chosen final billion elites to enjoy. At least, they won’t break or steal anything.
Yet another amazing success story for building green infrastructure:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360297/25-000-eco-classroom-used-solar-panels-dont-provide-heat.html
Hmmm
Looks a bit like Habitat 67 @ Expo 67
Y’know the only part of this that is clever is the positioning of the two complexes facing each other so’s these folks can easily string clotheslines back and forth.
This world IS nuts.
btw, while we’re on the subject of politically correct architects..
This is how bad it’s gotten. I have an architect on a current job insisting I have documentation for VOC emmissions and LEEDs on 4 linear feet of double sided tape I used on site. I’ll be billing them an extra $100 for documenting this $0.24 of dangerous tape.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_in_Energy_and_Environmental_Design
OT…but good news. Bombardier has landed the biggest contract in it’s history for 120 planes, So I guess we can expect them to pay back all the government money they have scrounged over the years. Life is good.
Abe Froman @11:44 – “You must remember that not only are the Haitians, Haitians, but they also speak French.”
My understanding is that most Haitians don’t speak French, that’s it’s the language of the elites. Creole, I think, is what 9 out of 10 people speak. Kinda French-derived, I know, but definitely not the same thing. Harder to understand than Acadien.
As for “(getting) rid of all the Haitians.” – yeah, getting rid of all the people is the only way any of this stuff will ever work. Bug, or feature?
We should give it a try.
HOW many layers of high-tension electric fencing?
“We should give it a try.
Posted by: Gobi desert at March 2, 2011 12:53 PM”
Mad if we don’t, mate
The only thing that one could send the people of Haiti as aid that would actually help them is the drug “Norplant”.
Anything else is a total waste of time,effort and money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norplant
I think we should go with this idea,and all the other Green ideas on Haiti, windmill, solar or tidal power,,sewage sytems,whatever they want. Use the Country as a monument to the “Green Way”.
If it works as they envision,the Haitians will have a pretty nice place to live,and if it doesn’t, WE can have an example of their failure for all the world to see.
For the next hundred years,whenever a Green whacko spouts off, we can just refer ’em to Haiti.
Might as well,these people will continue to bitch at us for doing things our way, so let’s give ’em the rope to hang themselves with. We’re going to piss away billions on that psuedo-Nation anyway.
HA! Exactly what I was thinking as I was reading the description of the artistic vision of the next “housing project”. Great line.
French+architect+environmental design+earthquake resistant=$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$+unlivable
Consider one simple fact, most of the buildings in Haiti collapsed due to an inability to mix concrete in correct proportions with proper materials and a lack of proper rebar, while the proposal is based on “massive concrete piers!!!
ChrisinMB has the right idea-shipping containers- there is a surfeit of cheap containers in the world-plonk ’em on some level ground, worst case scenario in a future earthquake is that they slide around a bit and break the utility connections (easily fixable)
I don`t have the time to comment on all of his proposal but one thing jumped out at me. How are they going to grow anything in those gardens in a carbon dioxide free environment? Nothing will grow without CO2.
“worst case scenario in a future earthquake is that they slide around a bit and break the utility connections”
With the anchor pins & crisscrossed turnbuckle bars that are utilized at sea I would imagine they be the most earthquake resistant dwellings in existence! 😉
Bob Devine
There you go dumping on the poor greens with facts.
Breaking up the fools gold vision of Utopia they have. Frankly Haiti would b a good place to put ALL environmentalists world wide.
Of course we will need to change the name to devils Island.
JMO
Let me fix parts of the description of the project:
“grow food”=grow weed
“All of the village would employ wind, solar and tidal power” = All of the village will be inhabited by unemployed people consuming all the energy generated by the wind, solar and tidal power
——————————————
It will be a good tourist site from outside the barbed wire fence:”Oh look, those buildings are doing the wave!”, “I never knew they made curved Lego!”
ChrisinMB said “anchor pins & crisscrossed turnbuckle bars” – agreed, but we are talking about folks who cannot mix concrete so I went with the kiss principle and noted this was worst case scenario.
Of course the UN are on the job, so there will be NO simple or economic solutions. Hence Fwench architects.
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“…massive earthquake-resistant concrete piers…”
Anybody know if there’s a single functioning concrete plant in the entire country of Haiti? Just wondering.
How about re-bar? Gravel? Any cranes for rent? Backhoes? … Bueler?
Anybody find a rendering of the project after the people have been moved in and throwing their garbage off the balconies and into the street for a few years? Because the garbage collectors didn’t get paid? Because the president of Haiti ran off to MonteCarlo with all the money?
Any news on who’s going to maintain those fancy-schmancy windmills, by the way? Here in First World Canada our windmills are idle most of the time due to maintenance issues.
how come our old friend malthus’ name or the phrase ‘sustainable development’ is never dragged into these utopian fantasies….
Ah, yes, a brilliant, ” sustainable ” future; a true utopia, awaits the Haitians, if only they put the likes of these planners in charge.
Why not respect the dignity of Haitians, and focus on relieving their present suffering, rather than use them as lab guinea pigs for some nut’s musings on a planned, imposed, utopia.
Earthquake resistant? Great! But how will they hold up in a hurricane? They get those in Haiti just about every year.
Chris in MB, Cascadian:
Shipping container homes don’t even have to be ugly or utilitarian. Here’s a Canadian design:
Home from 2 shipping containers
KevinB
Real trash housing
http://tinyurl.com/6dqfzdp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikeboy/30821052/
The only time in Haiti’s history when the Haitians experienced halfway decent government was when the US Marines ran the country. If anybody was interested in the well-being of the actual, living Haitians, they’d put the Marines back in charge and pass a law that any stuff manufactured in Haiti, by companies employing a majority of Haitians among their workers, had preferential, tariff-free entrance to the USA. Canada can give the same entrance if it wants to do something for Haiti.
No one will do that, of course. No matter how it might help the Haitians themselves, it would be evil, bad imperialism, dontcherknow. Plus I doubt the Marines want to go back.
Kate, what’s up with these anonymous spammers? Not going to touch those links.
What is it with this “carbon neutral” BS? The only practical housing in Haiti would be used shipping containers which can be stacked on top of one another to create instant apartment buildings although access to the upper “floors” would be via ladders attached to the side of the containers. Shipping containers are cheap, virtually indestructible and can probably be painted in bright colors to make them more esthetically pleasing to those individuals who are primarily concerned with how a building looks rather than what practical purpose it serves.
We have enough problems in Canada with leaky roofs and I can just imagine what the end result of roof gardens in Haiti would be, especially given that Haitians haven’t mastered the art of mixing concrete yet.
But, OTOH, there is a certain twisted logic to building this project as it could be used as evidence that “sustainable” architecture is a failure. We can just ignore the politically incorrect factum that anything one tries to do in Haiti will be a failure. The best thing to do with Haiti is to just throw a fence around it and accept anyone who manages to get through the obstacle course alive as an immigrant since they would demonstrate more ambition and intelligence than 99.99% of the Haitian population.
“All of the village would employ wind, solar and tidal power to generate electricity in a very natural way and hence help in reduction of carbon emissions”
Millions of people living and dying in squalor and these wingnuts are worried about preventing any increase in the country’s current 0.01% share of the world’s carbon emissions (sic). Narcissistic bastards. Haiti needs a few gigantic coal-fired power plants and a competitive tourist resort industry. That’s about the only thing that’ll salvage that cesspool.
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Another French architect, Le Corbusier, also designed an apartment complex that was completely unliveable
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