by Barbara Gutierrez
News@TheU
01-10-2020
In the future, Haitian students wishing to become nurses, musicians, construction workers, educators, or entrepreneurs will be able to study in a multi-million dollar complex called the Sustainable Village and Learning Community in the town of Luly, within the region of Akaye, considered the breadbasket of the country.
Supported by the Kellogg Foundation and in partnership with the State University of New York (SUNY), the complex’s masterplan was drawn up by Steve Fett, lecturer at the University of Miami School of Architecture and alumni Jose Venegas and Chris Ritter. Fett was asked by SUNY to be the lead architect in the design of the project.
The center will feature a vocational school, a health center, a hotel, and several other educational venues. Groundbreaking for the project is scheduled to take place in 2020. The community aims to be both environmentally and economically sustainable.
“There are very few opportunities in the region to learn trades or gain a higher education,” said Fett. “Students have to move or make their way to Port-Au Prince. So there is a great need for education.”
After the 2010 devastating earthquake, there was a movement to devise strategies to decentralize a still densely populated Port-au-Prince and develop rural and coastal towns and hamlets such as Akaye, 20 miles north of the capital.
Funded by a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, Fett and Sonia Chao, architecture professor and director of the University’s Center for Urban and Community Design, spent several years traveling to the region to assess the needs of the residents.
They held community forums and tabletop chats where they involved the residents in finding solutions to their communal problems. They wrote a comprehensive report in 2015 issuing recommendations for development in the region. Among the ideas residents and architects came up with was the creation of micro-businesses, schools, a medical clinic, and improvements to attract tourism.
The study caught the attention of the leadership at SUNY who will integrate some of its findings and suggestions on developing the Sustainable Village and Learning Community. The project will employ local Haitian builders and construction personnel, said Fett.
