U.S. Green Building Council Kicks Off Two Haiti Initiatives

The courtyard of the HOK-designed orphanage.

The United States Green Building Council

—the ecological building trade group and promulgator of the all-important LEED criteria for energy efficient design—has released details on a pair of new outreach programs aimed at helping the people of Haiti recover from 2010’s devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Global architecture office

HOK

will team up with the USGBC on a new orphanage and children’s center for the non-profit

Fondation Enfant Jesus

in Port-au-Prince, while a new Sustainability Design Fellow has been by chosen the USGBC in coordination with partner organizations the

American Institute of Architects

and

Architecture for Humanity

.

An aerial shot of the orphanage.

For the latter initiative, the new honoree, Burtland Granvil, will follow previous fellow Stacey McMahan, in leading Architecture for Humanity’s Rebuilding Center, also in Port-au-Prince. The Center, says Granvil, “will help educate and build together with local current and future builders of Haiti.” The new fellow, who will serve an 18-month stint in the country, added that “this is the main reason why I joined Architecture for Humanity.  I am here with others to work on the long-term approach.” The HOK-designed orphanage, targeted for LEED Platinum certification, will combine an envelope that responds to Port-au-Prince’s traditional “Gingerbread” style of residential architecture with cutting-edge green building features, including a special closed-loop water system that collects, stores, and cleans water on site. Says HOK’s Mary Ann Lazarus, “We are creating a replicable, living textbook of sustainable design tailored to the Haitian culture that we hope will influence the future of architecture in the region.”

Renderings courtesy of HOK.