Site
Jacmel, HT
Planning
08/2010 – 12/2010
Site Area
Entire Project:
171 ha Planning Area
95 ha Built-Up Area
10 ha Agricultural Land
66 ha Reforested Land
Construction Phase 1:
28,5 ha Planning Area
16,3 ha Built-Up Area
3 ha Agricultural Land
9,2 ha Reforested land
Gross Floor Area
Entire Project:
220.000m2 Housing
40.000m2 Commercial
45.000m2 Infrastructure
Construction Phase 1:
20.000m2 Housing
2.000 m2 Commercial
11.000m2 Infrastructure
Budget
Entire Project: $171 Mio
Construction Phase 1: $19 Mio
Partner in Charge
Mark Gilbert
Project Team
Christian Aulinger, Mark Gilbert, Georg Kogler;
Kerstin Fian, Julia Preschern, Dagnija Smilga, Frank Schwenk
Client
Green Container International Aid (NGO);
City of Jacmel, Haiti.
Financial subsidies were provided by departure, the city of Vienna’s agency for the creative economy. (presently the Wiener Wirtschaftsagentur)
Consultants
Infrastructure – Concept Engineering, DE
Construction Companies
Timber Works – Kaufmann Bausysteme, AT / Glöckel Holzbau, AT
Infrastructures – Ingeniería Estrella, DR, HA
Renderings
TC ZT GmbH Wien
jacmel satellite city is a comprehensive model for the development of a socially integrated and environmentally sustainable community. An ecologically responsible master plan generates an urban framework for a green field settlement that will provide housing, infrastructure and light-industry for Jacmel, the capital of Haiti’s Province Sud-Est, which was grievously damaged in the earthquake of 2010. Tightly-focused construction logistics for the housing units combine an innovative, pre-fabricated massive-timber architectural system with an employment strategy that will help to revitalize the economic base of the city.
Sited just outside of the existing downtown on hilly plateau cut by steep ravines, the project weaves an urban settlement for 25,000 inhabitants into a tropical landscape. Built-up areas are sited upon hilltops. The slopes of the ravines will be reforested and valley-bottomlands terraced for agriculture. A network of ridge-top, arterial roads connects the neighborhoods with the commercial and administrative center. The light industrial zone, situated next to the civic center, serves as an attractor for foreign investment and provides an economic underpinning for the newly developed urban area.
The architecture of the housing is based upon a creole cottage typology native to Haiti. A system of crossed, overhanging rafters provide cross-ventilation for each individual room; the cottages’ front porches produce semi-private, street-front thresholds that enhances social interaction, and improves neighborhood safety. Street patterns and house-siting respond to the gradients of the land, in steeply sloped sections, houses are stacked upon each other in order to optimize site-usage.
Prefabricated in Austria out of cross-laminated timber panels, the shells for the first 500 houses are designed to be shipped in containers (which will be recycled by the partner NGO into light-industrial workshops), assembled on site and finished by local labor. A system of subsidies for local artisans will bring jobs and contracts for the citizens of Jacmel and insure that the finished houses will showcase local handwork and culture.
