Humanitarian Design

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Headmaster Vivianne Vieux is clearly thrilled with the new addition to the free private school she runs in the coastal town of Jacmel. “It’s a piece of art,” the exuberant administrator exclaims, gesturing toward the 2,100-square-foot structure shaded by palm trees. “It’s beautiful!” Featuring natural elements such as stone and bamboo, the two-classroom building certainly stands apart from the average Haitian schoolhouse'uninspired structures made of concrete block. Completed in November 2011 and designed by Architecture for Humanity (AFH), the project exemplifies the nonprofit firm’s mission to create safe and dignified buildings for impoverished communities. “If you’re going to do a

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. The massive January 2010 earthquake pushed an already tenuous situation even closer to the brink. My images are the result of two post-quake visits to the ravaged country on assignment for Architectural Record. The purpose of the trips was to document the reconstruction efforts by a number of on-the-ground organizations doing difficult and necessary work. This compilation of photographs steps outside of that focus and tells a broader story of the people and places we encountered while traveling through this extraordinary country. People   Products

Photo © Aric Mei Architects are making slow but steady progress in this troubled Caribbean nation, over two years after a deadly earthquake leveled countless buildings and left more than a million homeless. Herv' Sabin, now 35 years old, fondly recalls his childhood in Port-au-Prince, where he spent his days studying, playing soccer, and watching films at the neighborhood movie theater. The streets were clean; the city felt safe. “I had everything a kid could want,” he says, noting that he was oblivious to the rising political tension that spurred countless Haitians to flee the country. “I didn’t really see

One rarely sees a new building when traveling through Haiti. While aid groups have tossed up temporary shelters in Port-au-Prince and outlying areas since the deadly January 2010 earthquake, ramshackle structures still dominate the impoverished country. Yet standing on the dusty fringe of Mirebalais, a town 37 miles north of Port-au-Prince, is a collection of handsome new buildings that comprise L’Ecole de Choix, or the School of Choice, which presently houses 200 students, from pre-kindergarteners through fourth-graders (expansion plans are in the works). Designed by a local firm in collaboration with a Chicago architect, the campus is a welcome sign

The Nike Football Training Centre is a billboard of a building in the loud and proud tradition of Soweto, South Africa's biggest and most ambitious township. From the rooftop of the three-story building, you can see an endless fabric of low-rise government housing and ad hoc shacks, but also signs of change: BMWs parked at the Maponya Mall, cabs heading to the revamped taxi stand at Baragwanath Hospital, and worshippers crowding into new Pentecostal churches. On most days, you will find groups of kids at play and in training on the immaculate soccer fields below. These scenes suggest a new

Set at a crossroads in Zwide, a township in Port Elizabeth, this multipurpose center provides pediatric HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, as well as spaces for dance classes, performance, and social functions. By including non-health-care activities and placing the building at an important intersection, the Ubuntu Education Fund aims to integrate the center with the local community and make HIV care a part of people's daily lives. Stan Field, who grew up in Port Elizabeth, and his son Jess designed the building as a series of poured-in-place concrete structures that seem to lean on each other and embody the client's mission