[GSBN] Haiti Gingerbread houses and Ti Kay Pay (+ nomination) (was Earthen floor . . .)

[martin hammer]

Jorge,

You mentioned the ³traditional Haiti house² or the ³tropical Haitian house²,
as documented by Anghelen Arrington Phillips.  Few outside Haiti are aware
of what are known as the Gingerbread houses, a name they adopted after
American tourists in the 1950¹s compared them to the ³gingerbread² Victorian
era houses in the US.  They are fascinating buildings built between 1870 and
1925, derived from the architectural styles of France and the US at that
time, but are uniquely adapted to Haitian culture, climate, and materials.
Many use braced timber wall framing with masonry infill (colombage), similar
to European half-timber buildings, but are even more closely related to
building systems found in Pakistan, Turkey, and Spain.  These buildings
performed well in the earthquake, and it¹s common to see one standing
adjacent to a lot with a collapsed concrete and concrete block building.

The Gingerbreads have no direct connection to strawbale, but have personal
meaning.  I evaluated them as part of an earthquake reconnaissance team from
the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute last March, and later with a
team from the World Monuments Fund.  We subsequently wrote a book entitled
³Preserving Haiti¹s Gingerbread Houses², recently published and available as
a free download at www.conservationtech.com.  I¹ve attached a photo of a
prominent Gingerbread (that suffered moderate damage from the earthquake,
and was later repaired).

Regarding strawbale, I agree with your point Jorge, that a good way to
promote strawbale in Haiti is to adapt it to the traditional architecture.
That¹s what our Builders Without Borders team has done.  But not by adapting
it to the Gingerbreads, but to the traditional Ti Kay (small house in
Kreyol) which is the more common and I think the truer traditional house in
Haiti.  It is the basic two-room plus galri (porch) rural living unit.  The
Gingerbread houses are also traditional, but are urban/sub-urban, were
constructed in a limited time period, and were built only for the middle and
upper middle class (maybe 8% of Haiti¹s population).  I¹ve attached a photo
of what we call the Ti Kay Pay (small house of straw).  More can be seen in
the Photo Gallery at www.builderswithoutborders.org.

In another post I should tell of the key features in the design, and lessons
learned.  But for now I will say that the building was/is successful (with
numerous challenges along the way) and is being received very well by all
who see it.  We¹re now exploring next projects and prospective partners.

The Ti Kay Pay team includes five core members who are on this list, with
peripheral assistance from at least six others on this list.  I want to
thank and acknowledge them (and a few others) for their contributions.
Catherine Wanek and Derek Roff provided support as co-directors of Builders
Without Borders which is the umbrella organization, with help from two
organizations, the Sheltering Pine Institute, and Grass Roots United (who
provided the site on-site support).  Dan Smith, Henri Mannik (P.E, more on
Henri later), and Andy Mueller joined me on the design team, with bamboo
assistance from Darrel DeBoer.  Haitian architect Regine Laroche (introduced
in a previous e-mail) helped steer us regarding cultural issues.  Tim
Owen-Kennedy and Bob Theis chimed in at times with perspective from their
own work in Haiti.  Likewise Bruce King and EBNet, who is also co-owner of
our sturdy rubble crusher.  A natural builder from the SF area, Kevin
Rowell, who spent 10 months in Haiti, made many contributions in the bale
production phase, along with resourceful Haitians Noel and Arol who
manufactured the bales.  Andy Mueller was the lead builder (and did a
remarkable job), with weeks of important work from Tina Therrien.  One of
our primary donors Mark Phillips dedicated over a month helping with the
construction.  Most importantly Haitians Jean Louis Ellie, Annio Baptiste,
and Samuel Alcide became integral team members, learning (as did we) how to
build with strawbale in Haiti.  They are the first of many Haitians we hope
will learn, help develop, and continue this way of building in Haiti.  I
also want to make special mention of Darcey Donovan, whose work in Pakistan
with strawbale building since 2006, was in many ways the starting point for
the Ti Kay Pay system, including the method of bale fabrication.  This first
strawbale building in Haiti was a team effort in every sense of the word.

And to continue a bit further, it¹s not difficult to draw lines from all the
people and work I just mentioned to many others, maybe even everyone on this
GSBN list.  One needs only look at the earthen floor discussion to see a
direct example of that.  But there are countless other connections and
influences that are less obvious, but no less important.  This continues to
be a remarkable web of remarkable people, and I¹m not sure there¹s anything
else quite like it on the globe.

With that I¹d like to nominate Henri Mannik, an architect and our team¹s
project engineer.  Henri has designed and engineered numerous strawbale
buildings in northern California (and now in Haiti), and has participated in
numerous structural tests with strawbale systems over the years.  He would
bring another acute engineering eye to the group.

Cheers all.

Martin Hammer


On 3/25/11 1:54 AM, "Van Krieken" <vankrieken at gmail.com> wrote:

> I understand that .the traditional Haiti house was very much influenced by the
> northen french bathhouse architecture, in the late 1890. Young Haitian
> architecture students in France, were inspired by these forms and created a
> tropical Haitian house, documented later by an American,.Anghelen Arrington
> Phillips.
> 
> StrawBale building methods can adapt very easily to this traditional Haitian
> architecture language. I make a emphasis on this issue because I believe that
> the best way to promote strawbale houses its to adapt them to the traditional
> architecture, special in rural areas. We do that in Portugal, and the impact
> is excellent, as locals do not look at these houses as a foreign
> aeccentricity, but yes as a intelligent and smart way to build their
> traditional houses.
> 
> Being lime the traditional material used in Haiti, why not just use a
> limecreet in the floor (well documented by Barbara Jones), about 5cm of 4:1
> lime/sand -- attention, not too humid please .. :-)) -- finished a few hours
> later by a «burnt cement» finishing layer (cement powder mixed with pigments,
> and trowel after with a inox trowel). It makes a beautiful floor, very
> traditional on tropical and temperate climates, fresh and easy to clean. If
> you need more practical info about this just tell me.
> 
> By the way, .cCouldn't we all help to developed a few well documented open
> source emergency building projects for a law cost passive house that could be
> used in any part of the globe, and easily adapted to local architecture
> design?
> 
> Good work
> 
> Jorge Van Krieken
> 

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