An Introduction to Galri, an international architecture and urban design firm focused on Haiti regeneration

2. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GALRI GROUP

3. TRANSFORMATIVE DEVELOPMENT
CONCEPTS FOR HAITI

4. www.galrigroup.com
galrigroup@gmail.com

5. WHAT IS GALRI?
GALRI is a joint venture association of San Francisco Bay Area architects
who have been working in Haiti since January of 2010 in collaboration with
Haitian professionals and citizens.
The name GALRI comes from the Kreyol work for veranda or porch, that
essential Haitian place that mediates between the private interior and the
public community life.
We are focused on cultural connection and environmental sustainability as
vital sparks in regeneration and redevelopment.

6. GALRI PROVIDES:
TOWN & SITE PLANNING
ARCHITECTURE & BUILDING DESIGN
CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION

7. GALRI VISION:
We integrate global best practices with local knowledge, to help regenerate
and sustain Haiti's built and natural environment.

8. GALRI OBJECTIVES:
We leverage international development resources with local knowledge and
networks
We facilitate sustainable, culturally connected planning and design in public
and private initiatives to revitalize the cities and towns of post-earthquake
Haiti

9. GALRI IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS:
We identify and match development opportunities with entitlements, capital
and human resources.
We implement sustainable, culturally connected planning, design and
construction.
We preserve, restore and enhance Haiti’s unique cultural, landscape for
economic engagement with world markets.
We help civil servants, property owners, investors and local stakeholders
integrate, leverage and balance economic, environmental and social returns
on investment.
We bring market-driven solutions that will help Haiti emerge onto the world
stage as a desirable destination for investment.
We establish effective linkages among international and local higher
education institutions to improve professional preparation in planning,
design, engineering and construction and enhance economic opportunity for
younger citizens of Haiti.

10. GINGERBREAD
REDEVELOPMENT
“LEGENDS OF HAITI”

11. GALRI Restoration Vision for the “Castel Fleuri” in Port au Prince

12. Haiti's historic Gingerbread Houses embody an extraordinary exhibition of
architectural artistry, and provide both a touchstone and a beacon for the
efforts to rebuild and regenerate Port au Prince and Haiti.
Designed and built in the early 20th century by Haitian born architects who
had studied in France, and utilizing a resilient hybrid of timber frame and
masonry construction, they are uniquely ornamented and ingeniously
climatically responsive.
The Gingerbreads thus exemplify a global high water mark of African
American and Creole environmental culture. However, although they are
acknowledged as world treasures of art and building, and have proved
remarkably resilient in the wake of the January 2010 earthquake, many are in
danger of vanishing, through neglect, demolition, redevelopment and a lack
of awareness of their significance and exceptionality.

13. The Gingerbreads provide a wonderful model of the creative power of Creole
culture, as a regional amalgam of globally transmitted African, European,
and American threads, that is inherently responsive to local circumstance,
including in terms of climate, materials and construction technology--in other
words "sustainable".
An ambitious joint endeavor, of historical preservation and education, of
conserving and restoring these buildings, raising awareness of their
particularly rich cultural legacy, would re-introduce the best of Haiti, its
"Legends" to the world.
Galri is currently working with international hospitality experts on
developing economic, planning, architectural and restoration plans that will
preserve and nourish these "Legends" through the 21st Century, and leverage
their splendor as a prime catalyst for Haiti's redevelopment.

14. THE URBAN VILLAGE MODEL

15. GALRI Preliminary Sketch for Port au Prince Urban Village Model

16. The "Urban Village Model" is an integrated system for developing, building
and maintaining the physical environment of small self managed
communities in urban settings. In Haiti, the "Urban Village" is a cohesive
physical and social whole--a mini-neighborhood--primarily residential,
centered around a shared open space --- "Lakou" in Kreyol.
The Urban Village Model is not a Disney-like "model village." Rather, it is a
systematic method to identify, configure and build housing that creates
vibrant communities. Key elements include: integrated planning, design,
engineering and construction, on site prototyping with residents, independent
infrastructure, and adoption of dynamic social and market channels for
scaling and adaptation.

17. GALRI Building Types Study for Urban Village Model

18. Several key Haitian Kreyol environmental patterns are manifested in the
Urban Village Model, including:
"Nuovo Lakou"--a modernization of the traditional Haitian courtyard
Landscape stewardship--integrating private and shared open spaces with
landscape restoration
A diversity of building types, including Creole Townhouses, "Kay Chamhot"
(tall house) and "Ti Kay" (small house)
"Galri" (veranda) extended outdoor living spaces
"Jaden pre kay" (kitchen gardens)
Property line hedgerows & gates

19. METROPOLITAN PORT AU PRINCE
RESIDENTIAL VILLAGES

20. GALRI Preliminary Sketch for Metropolitan Port au Prince Residential Village

21. The residential villages are sited on multi-acre "greenfield" parcels within
commuting distance of downtown Port au Prince.
The Haitian residential village synthesizes Haitian and American medium
density "suburban" models. Preliminary studies demonstrate capacity for
several hundred dwellings, with connections to local commercial and work
centers, as well as social, institutional and recreational facilities.
The house types would vary in scale and configuration, from small homes to
estate lots, with potential also for modestly scaled apartment and mixed use
buildings. Each typical lot accommodates two dwelling units.
Existing trees, natural watercourses and other landscape features will to be
restored and enhanced. A connected grid of streets and blocks will be
integrated with the site's existing topography and landscape. The residential
core of the villages would be developed initially, providing a resilient
foundation for incremental infill growth.

22. GALRI Preliminary Sketch for Residential Village Typical Lot Configuration

23. Civic patterns in the residential villages include:
•A healthy mix of residential & working life
•Connection to neighboring infrastructure networks
•Integrated energy, water, waste, transportation and communications
management
Architectural and building patterns in the residential villages include:
•A diversity of building types & scales
•Safe, durable & culturally connected construction methods & materials
Landscape repair patterns in the residential villages include:
•A garden network at a range of scales
•Tree lined streets and property line hedgerows, as part of an integrated water
resource system

24. INTEGRATED
INFRASTRUCTURE
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

25. GALRI /URBIMPLANT© Integrated Infrastructure Management System

26. URBIMPLANT© in Downtown Port au Prince Block Context

27. URBIMPLANT© in Downtown Port au Prince Block Context

28. URBIMPLANT© in Downtown Port au Prince Block Context

29. CURRENT PROJECTS
IN DEVELOPMENT

30. THE WHAT IF PROGRAM

31. What if Courtyard

32. The What If Foundation was founded in 2000 to support food and education
programs for impoverished children in Port-au-Prince. The food program
started small, but grew steadily and now feeds more than 500 children per
day in the Ti Plas Kazo neighborhood. Its school scholarship program
provides 200 scholarships annually. Education and nutrition together are
essential to break the hold that poverty has on a majority of children in Haiti.
Recognizing the paramount importance of education, and how inaccessible it
is for the poor in Haiti, the What If Foundation has undertaken the building
and operating its own school instead of simply providing scholarships. The
school and cafeteria will serve 500 students, K-13. The food program will
continue for the students, as well as maintaining programs for the larger
community, including access to an multi-purpose/auditorium space for
community events.

33. The What If Foundation has partnered with a team from Builders Without
Borders, led by the GALRI member, architect Martin Hammer, to design and
oversee the construction of the approximately one million dollar project, with
construction slated to start in the Fall of 2012.
The design addresses the project’s functional needs, is engineered for both
earthquakes and hurricanes, meets the challenges of a sloping urban site, and
is responsive to climate and culture with its use of the open open but shaded
Galri for circulation.
The project will include Photovoltaic electricity, rainwater catchment, and
dehydrating toilets. The building will be constructed using reinforced
concrete block with crushed rubble aggregate, bamboo roof framing in the
Galri, and plastered straw-clay panels in the second story walls.

34. MEDICORP CLINIC
& HOUSING PROTOTYPES

35. MEDICORP Clinic

36. These projects are being implemented as a collaboration between the
University of San Francisco Architecture and Community Design
International Outreach Program under the direction of GALRI member Seth
Wachtel, and Medicorp, a non-profit community partner in Haiti. This
prototype primary care clinic and attendant housing provides Haitian
communities with access to health care in structurally safe, efficiently
designed and culturally connected buildings.
The clinic is designed to be familiar and inviting, climatically comfortable,
and structurally able to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. It is to serve as
a place of comfort, hope and safety for the community.

37. The attendant dwellings are located in proximity to the Health Clinic,
providing housing for health care workers. Various configurations of this
complex of housing and health services are intended to be deployed
throughout Haiti.
Construction details that apply current engineering standards to an adaptation
of the historic Gingerbread/Columbage building type found in Port au Prince,
Jacmel and other Haitian cities are being developed with the engineering
team. The timber laced masonry system is both beautiful and seismically and
hurricane resistant.

38. PATTERNS:
KREYOL LIVING WISDOM

39. Kreyol Living Wisdom Building Types Research

40. We call the essential patterns of the Haitian environmental legacy “Kreyol
Living Wisdom”. They are a touchstone and inspiration for rebuilding, a
magnet for investment, and a priceless stake in establishing Haiti’s full
partnership on the world stage.
Kreyol Living Wisdom is the means by which culturally connected
reconstruction and development can actually happen. It is the way that
ordinary Haitian citizens can shape the truly sustainable regeneration of their
country, through empowering and leveraging the legacy of their native
experience and intelligence.
Kreyol Living Wisdom must be thoroughly documented, archived and
disseminated, in order to best fulfill its full potential.

41. TEN ESSENTIAL PATTERNS:
The question--What can Haiti teach us?--has guided our work. It is based on
really looking at how Haitians have actually best lived in and crafted their
environment, as well as their dreams and aspirations to a healthier society.
We have focused on ten essential patterns that represent the full spectrum of
this knowledge. These patterns, on three levels of scale include:
TOWNS: BUILDINGS:
1. Landscape Stewardship 5. The Galri (Porch)
2. Living Off the Land 6. The Jaden (Garden)
3. Kreyol Settlement Structure 7. Rural Building Models
4. The Lakou 8. Urban Building Models
CONSTRUCTION:
9. Color, Pattern & Ornament
10. Kreyol Architecture

42. Kreyol Settlment Structure—Cap Hatien

43. Kreyol Settlement Structure—The Market Street

44. The Galri (Jacmel)

45. The Jaden (Jacmel)

46. Urban Building Types (Jacmel)

47. Color, Pattern & Ornament

48. Kreyol Architecture

49. GALRI CORE TEAM

50. Christopher Robin Andrews
Architect & Town Planner, GALRI Executive Director
Christopher is an architect and town planner with three decades of
experience. His practice, based in Oakland California focuses on
environmentally sustainable and culturally connected design.

51. Seth Wachtel
Environmental Designer & Builder, Director of the Architecture and
Community Design Program, University of San Francisco, GALRI Education
& Community Design Liaison
Seth is the Director of the Architecture and Community Design Program at
the University of San Francisco. Professor Wachtel runs the Community
Design Outreach, International Projects, and Innovation Lab courses at
USF, which provide students the opportunity to work on real world
design/build projects for underrepresented communities both locally and
internationally. Over the past year and a half he has been working on several
projects in Haiti, including a health clinic prototype for Medicorp
International and an orphanage in Carrefour.

52. Martin Hammer, Architect
GALRI International Project Manager
Throughout his career Martin has focused on sustainable building design,
including the use of passive solar, photovoltaic electricity, solar hot water,
rammed earth, rainwater and grey water systems, with particular focus on
the design, engineering, testing, and construction of super-insulated-wall
straw bale buildings.
Since February 2010 he has worked extensively in post-earthquake Haiti.
Martin was a member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s
second reconnaissance team in Haiti, and was one of five team members with
the World Monuments Fund and FOKAL (Fondasyon Konesans ak Libète)
assessing the Gingerbread houses of Port-au-Prince in a historic
preservation effort. Since June 2010 Martin has been leading a team from
Builders Without Borders developing, promoting, and implementing
sustainable rebuilding solutions for Haiti.

53. Frank Giunta
GALRI Project Strategy, Development & Management Coordinator
At the University of California, Berkeley / College of Engineering, Frank
directed the college-wide contract and grant portfolio ($150M), its
international industry liaison program, and development of the Richmond
(CA) research center, recently selected to become as the second campus of
the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As principal of the knowledge-
based economic development consultancy Connaissance International, past
domestic engagements include: University of Oregon, University of Missouri-
Rolla, Eau Claire (WI) Industrial Development Council, University of
Pennsylvania, and consortia of universities in St. Louis, MO and Newark, NJ,
the latter three with Eva Klein Associates. International engagements
include Marmara Science Park, Istanbul, Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro, TechnoPark Malaysia, and City of Knowledge, former Panama
Canal Zone, Panama, with EKA and the Academy of Educational
Development. Since 2000 Frank has served as board president of Artship
Foundation, San Francisco.

54. GALRI STRATEGIC PARTNERS

55. Randolph Langenbach
GALRI Senior Advisor
Architectural, Engineering & Environmental Historian
Randolph has become known for his seminal work on traditional
construction in earthquake areas. He is author and photographer for the
2009 UNESCO book Don’t Tear It Down! Preserving the Earthquake
Resistant Vernacular Architecture of Kashmir. In 2010, he led a technical
team to Haiti to survey damage to the historic Gingerbread Houses in Port-
au-Prince for the World Monuments Fund, and is co-author and principle
photographer for the book from that mission published by the WMF:
Preserving Haiti’s Gingerbread Houses. Between 1992–2004, he served as
Senior Analyst for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
More recently, he has served as visiting professor at the University of
Brescia in Italy.

56. Frederick Mangones
Architect, AD
Frederick is a Haitian Architect with 40 years of varied and extensive
experience in Haiti and internationally, in urban planning, architectural
design, project management, historic preservation and restoration,
management and supervision of civil engineering projects and general
construction. Notable work includes preliminary study of the Citadelle
Restoration Project, design and construction management of TELECO
Headquarters at Pont Morin, and management of several lots of the General
Drainage Plan of Port-au-Prince. He has done historic preservation work in
Haiti, Dominican Republic, Granada, Antigua, and Cuba. Frederick has
served as Assistant Director and Project Director of l'Institut de Sauvegarde
du Patrimoine National (ISPAN) in particular in the ISPAN/UNESCO
Project of Parc National Historique Citadelle Sans-Souci Ramiers , and has
served as President of Haiti Habitat, S.A. He has been a Partner at
"Mangonés & Associés" and is currently President of AD Architecture et
Developpement. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell
University, where he also has served as Visiting Professor. He is Secretary
of the Association Haïtienne des Architectes et des Urbanistes, and a member
of the Association des Ingénieurs et Architectes.

57. Manuel Knight
Tourism Advisor and Economic Analyst
Manuel has over three decades of international experience in the field of
physical planning and development for tourism projects, including market &
financial feasibility studies, master planning and development of hotels,
resort complexes as well entire destinations and related infrastructures. He
has conducted assignments in over 75 countries and is experienced in
assessing investment opportunities and risks in developing economies.
Through positions in US, UK, French and Japanese firms Manuel's
experience for various donor agencies and commercial property developers,
is extensive. With solid knowledge of international travel markets, of tourism
operations, and of the dynamics of investment, he can strengthen destination
development master plans, tourism project strategies and scrutinize income
streams and asset valuations, to ensure that they reflect reality.

58. Jonathan Davol
Real Estate Economic Analyst
With his Rockville Maryland consulting firm Jon has done market, economic,
and financial feasibility consulting for numerous residential developments
including condominiums, rental apartment buildings, and single-family
subdivisions. He brings a broad understanding of the market forces
affecting residential development in new construction, renovation and
rehabilitation. His experience includes residential development for
households of all income levels, from affordable housing for low-income
households, to luxury-level apartments and homes. Jon has primarily
consulted for private developers, investors, and lenders in the private sector,
but he has also done some tourism consulting for the U.S. Agency for
International Development in Jordan. and on worked on studies funded by
the U.S. Trade Development Agency and International Finance Corporation.

59. Claude Alexandre
Haiti Business Development Liaison
Based in Los Angeles, and with a deep rooted connection to his Haitian
upbringing, Claude is an accomplished executive with both extensive
business and non-profit leadership experience. Highly creative in connecting
stakeholders from the public, private and social sectors, he has served as
President and Chief Financial Officer for several companies. With a
background in new business development, strategic and operational
planning, equity funding, and major gifts cultivation, Claude has significant
global and national contacts, networks, and affiliations generated from work
with international relief and non-profit institutions. He is a resourceful
leader with a distinctive ability to align and inspire people to achieve
possibility-oriented outcomes.

60. TRANSFORMATIVE DEVELOPMENT
CONCEPTS FOR HAITI
www.galrigroup.com
galrigroup@gmail.com
USA tel: 510.355.6401
Port au Prince/Haiti tel: 509.3773.3978