Settlements / Deployable Infrastructures

Yesterday, several news stories appeared regarding the placement, planning, and construction efforts for the rebuilding of shelter for the displaced Haitians.  Common to the articles was the tension that exists between the need for immediate housing, what will happen as settlements become increasingly more defined as places, and the need for more permanent solutions with [...]

Notes on Temporary Settlements

The creation of temporary settlements, particularly for displaced persons, is a frequent one – but primarily for both governments and NGO’s seeking to create safe loci, with proper (albeit) minimal infrastructures and amenities, for a short period of time.  The agencies that engage in this discourse are civil servants, engineers, and aid organizations.

The newly homeless [...]

Haiti: Shelter, Location, and Permanence

© Logan Abassi/MINUSTAH via Getty Images

Aid continues to arrive in post-quake Haiti, and survivors, without homes, are seeking shelter.  Currently, the dislocated and dispersed survivors are living in temporary makeshift tents, in the still unstable urban core / epicenter.  Efforts are now being made to transport the survivors into new, [...]