The Housing Crisis
The January 12 earthquake reportedly destroyed 100,000 homes, with another 200,000 left damaged. Today, more than a million Haitians remain homeless. We take a look at various housing problems and solutions. With hurricane season fast approaching, the need for shelter is becoming more urgent by the day.

The Ravaged City
Months after the devastating January 12 earthquake, much of Port-au-Prince remains in shambles. The Haitian government estimates that damages total $10 billion. We present a series of snapshots taken throughout the shattered city.

Mountain Living
Many earthquake refugees are migrating to rural areas. To get a sense of what life is like outside of Port-au-Prince, we traveled into the mountains one day to visit a family we had made contact with through friends.

Photo © Aric Mei

Yves Francois
After decades of practicing architecture in New York, Yves Francois returned to his native Haiti in 2009, determined to improve the country’s building practices. Today, he runs ECOFRA, an architecture and construction firm based in Port-au-Prince. Francois speaks candidly about his experience working in the troubled island country.

Photo © Aric Mei

RECORD reports on architects’ involvement in Haiti.

• Virginia Tech Student Wins Yéle Haiti Competition
• Haiti Rebuilding Is "Stalled," Says New Report
• Haitian Government Launches Housing Design Competition
• Experts Convene in NYC for Haiti Symposium
• NYC Designer Aims to Build in Rural Haiti
• Congress Moving on Haiti for Haiti
• Seismic Seminar Aimed at Haitian Engineers
• Shigeru Ban Aims to Build Waterproof Shelters for Haiti
• Clinic Made of Freight Containers Heads to Haiti
• Rebuilding Plan for Haiti Includes New Ports, Highways
• Andrés Duany Hopes to Build Prefab Houses in Haiti
• Haiti Seeks $3.9 Billion for First Phase of Reconstruction
• How Can Architects Get Involved in Haiti Disaster Relief?
• Minority Architects Mobilize to Help Haiti
• A/E/C Specialists Rush to Help Haiti

Image courtesy Andrés Duany

"La Cabanon" Housing
Architect Andrés Duany explains one of the prefab homes his firm has designed to house Haitians displaced by January's earthquake.

Day in the Life: Architecture for Humanity
In April, AFH invited RECORD to spend a day with its team in Haiti. Here, we speak with designers Eric Cesal and Schendy Kernizan and visit an expansive refugee camp on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

Transitional Shelters
Habitat for Humanity plans to erect 1,000 temporary, upgradeable dwellings in Haiti. We speak with the man who designed them: Robert Busser, AIA, a Philadelphia architect and longtime Habitat volunteer who traveled to Haiti in April.

Life at the Epicenter
Léogâne, a coastal city about 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince, was at the epicenter of the deadly January 12 earthquake. We visit a rural village in the area to see how residents are managing to get by. 

Haitian Refugees At Risk
We visit the Petionville Golf Club refugee camp, which sprawls across bare, steep hills. The flood risk is particularly high here.

Photo © Aric Mei

Haiti Dispatch: Recent Blog Posts
In April, RECORD’s Jenna M. McKnight and ENR’s Tom Sawyer headed to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, where they spent a week reporting on the early stages of the rebuilding effort. Here, we feature their firsthand accounts, along with other news related to the struggling island country.

Image courtesy Jenna M. McKnight

On January 12, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing 220,000 people and leaving more than 1 million homeless. Weeks after the disaster, Charles Newman, an emerging architect, traveled to Haiti to assess structural damage in a village outside of Port-au-Prince. Read his account and view a slide show. 

Photo © Charles Newman

In October 2008, RECORD presented extensive coverage of people and projects that merge design with social responsibility. Read interviews with Shigeru Ban and Teddy Cruz, see work by the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, learn about design-build projects, and more.

Photo © Alan Karchmer