As part of the ongoing Santo Community Development Plan a design charrette focused on housing was held last week. Approximately 80 members of the local community took part in designing the plan. Housing is at the core of this permanent planned community but the charrette also addressed communal spaces, sanitation, water points, agriculture, recreation areas, recycling and waste management.

Two "games" were developed by the Haiti team to facilitate direct involvement with the community as designers of their neighborhood: a 3D game which addressed the individual home and property, and a 2D game looking at the neighborhood area.

The charrette was characterized by heated debate, probing questions and some very sophisticated designs. Check out the video below for a flavor of the day. We learnt a lot, and this will be directly incorporated into the masterplan. The team are working hard to finalize the design and issue the drawings as construction of the first 150 homes is due to start in early August.