A cadre of engineers from the San Francisco office of Arup–an international multi-disciplinary consulting firm–recently sat with Architecture for Humanity to discuss the technical aspects of a school campus design for Haiti. In the course of an afternoon the two groups isolated some recommendations for: air and energy use, water and waste management, construction material choices, fire safety and structural needs for the peculiar local conditions in Port-au-Prince. The Architecture for Humanity Haiti program manager skyped in to catch the team up on conditions and design constraints on the ground.

This is the first of a suite of charrettes (sweet!) between the two groups as they hone a set of best practices for construction in Haiti. The results of this collaboration will be featured online on the Open Architecture Network.