2018 - Haiti Arise, Grand Goave, Haiti

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:

Engineering Ministries International (Garrett and I working out the  shear walls for the Haiti Arise church expansion)

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

This design work was done as part of my volunteer efforts with Engineering Ministries International (eMi). Here is the team doing our investigation work:

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