Dear friends, thank you for taking time to opening up this blog. Welcome to any new viewers and welcome back for those who have been following my blog for a while. Below, I will share a bit about a visioning trip for both Li-Ann and myself:
Blog for my volunteer trip to
Haiti Arise:
The
Haiti
Arise Birthing Center parti was inspired by the circulation
pattern at the
Noguchi museum in
Long Island City. In Architecture lingo, the term "parti” literally
translates as "departure point," and most often refers to the project
design's initial big idea.
One of my favourite museums, the Noguchi museum mixes in outdoor spaces to view the sculptures - as well as indoor viewing spaces. This helps to alleviate
long stretches of viewing art that you typically will see in larger museums
where a patron would otherwise experience
museum fatigue (Gilman,
The Scientific Monthly 1916).
What brought me to think about Noguchi was the coffee table
at the guesthouse of Haiti Arise. It is a version of the famous
table that made Noguchi
a household name to families around the world:
Figure 1: Noguchi table, Herman
Miller, 1947
Not unlike spacing art/sculptures appropriately so that they
can have the proper room to “breathe”, buildings in hot and humid climates like
Haiti rely quite a bit on natural ventilation and cross ventilation to promote
cooling; especially for buildings where air conditioning is not readily
available.
As a smaller scale extension of this principle, even rooms
within a building could benefit from a certain amount of separation from each
other. One way to accomplish this is the use of courtyards; this can double as
an outdoor meeting space. It also adds more exterior type wall surfaces for
adjacent rooms to have more fenestration for cross ventilation:
Figure 2: Chong, Dan. Schematic Design of Birthing Center
- Engineering Ministries International, February 2018.
Below is what the existing site for the future Birthing Center
looks like. The Birthing Center is a place for expecting mothers in this area
of Haiti to give safe birth in:
Figure 3: Photo by Litterer, Sydney. Engineering Ministries
International, February 2018
Another example at Haiti Arise is the future expansion of
the vocational school. Double loaded corridors could potentially be stuffy in
this kind of climate. For large buildings, this could be eliminated by the use
of open atrium space that can be also used as circulation. An atrium is more
appropriate for a larger building, as an atrium can also be used as a space for student
gatherings:
Figure 4: Chong, Dan. Haiti Arise, Final report -
Engineering Ministries International, June 2018
Figure 5: Photo by Malone, Caroline. Engineering
Ministries International, February 2018
Yes, we did this project for the children at Haiti Arise:
Figure 6: Photo by Chong, Li-Ann. Engineering Ministries
International, February 2018
But also Marc and Lisa too. Their story is
amazing, if you would like to read some of it:
https://www.haitiarise.org/ourstory
Our Client was Haiti Arise.
Haiti Arise is dedicated to reach the the poor in Haiti. Their focus is on Primary and Elementary schools, Vocational schools, Church plants, Health Clinic and providing homes to children who otherwise would not have parents or a place to live.
Here is a picture of our final presentation to Haiti Arise
and some of their stakeholders – you can see the variation of the Noguchi table
in the foreground on the left:
Figure 7: Photo by Mills, Garrett. Engineering Ministries
International, February 2018
As of January 2020, the birthing clinic has been
built out with the exception of paint and some plumbing. A UN study estimates that Haiti requires 80 birthing clinics, but only 8 exists at the time of our project visit. Haiti ARISE has begun
using the facility for midwife training and child nutrition programs until the
clinic can fully open.
Here's a quick video about the birthing center
from an interview with Lisa Honorat (the missionary we served in Haiit):
Video by Braden Swab, EMI project leader
This project was done during a season of walking by faith for me.
As I am embarking on joining EMI on a full time basis instead of volunteering
from time to time, I am reminded of what Dallas Willard said about everyday life being
an easy yoke,
“The secret of the easy yoke is simple, actually. It is the intelligent,
informed, unyielding resolve to live as Jesus lived in all aspects of his life,
not just in the moment of specific choice or action” (Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, 1988).
This is where I am at in my journey:
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly
in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light”.
NIV, Matthew
11:29-30
