The studio began with proposals for the innovative use for new materials for the interior and exterior of building homes and schools in Haiti using alternative energy sources, communication, sanitation, delivery systems, and rainwater collection networks.
Through research and documentation into Haiti’s culture, from religion, and social environment, to political and ecological tensions, students then took on the challenge of the design of a new village with housing and small institutional building designs, near Jacmel in Haiti. The designs for Haiti provided opportunities for students to create more responsive and strategic opportunities for land remediation, civic constitution, and social economy. Students travelled to Haiti and presented their work in May, 2011.