The Haiti Schools were all abuzz the fist week of November, however one will soon be flying solo, with others soon following suit: Dignité officially opened November 7 and Montrouis is scheduled for completion before the New Year. Between these and ambitious activity on the other school sites, construction techniques and training continue to be refined and we simply can't wait to see what the future has in store for the next generation of Haitian architecture!
A synopsis on school construction status follows, with exhaustive coverage of construction and communities available on the Students Rebuild Haiti blog.
École La Dignité - Not sure if you've head, but the Dignité extension celebrated its grand opening on Monday! Everything's finished and, after the school cleans up after its numerous guests, the rooms will be occupied by the eldest students at the school. School headmistress Vivianne Vieux is excited to expand the impact of her school to older students, and couldn't be happier with the buildings that Students Rebuild has funded! Read more about the ceremony and the school.
Opening Ceremony: Visitors try out the benches forming an outdoor meeting space created by Dignité's new classrooms
École Elie Dubois - It's all about groundwork this month at Elie. Foundation work has begun on the cafeteria at the back of the site, with construction progressing towards the gates to make coordination easier. Pipework is being designed for the schools drainage and waste systems, and the hole for the giant bio digester has been excavated–it's ten feet deep! Meanwhile our architectural engineer Rick Ehlert and new design fellow Natalie Desrosiers are conducting reinforced concrete training sessions for the Elie construction crew. Also, discussions are ongoing with the preservation authority ISPAN regarding retrofits to Building One–including location and materials of porch and stairs which will need structural revisions.
Engineer Rick Ehlert and Design Fellow Natalie Desrosiers (both seated) conduct construction training classes on site at Elie Dubois
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - The second floor has topped out and steel and formwork are being prepared for the ring beam to top the walls and tie them all together. Steel trusses are also being welded for the roof–an exploration into our team specifying different materials from the wood trusses used in Dignité. The benefits include working with a more available construction material, and operational changes include tying metal plates into the ring beam pour for spot welding other welding happening on-site. Meanwhile, the first floor is being coated in the traditional Haitian cement-based crepissage plaster, and construction has begun on the handicap ramp.
Crepissage coating is being applied to the ground floor of Montrouis
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - The perimeter wall has been replaced and foundations have been dug for the phase 1 buildings...and keep filling with water! Also the construction crew can now set to work crushing rubble from the old classrooms, as soon as they assemble the delivered rubble crushers.
Rubble crushers arrive on site...with some assembly required!
Institut Foyer du Savoir - The team has worked out the contract problems with the school owner, and construction can proceed on the Home of Knowledge!
Deep foundations needed on site.
