Project Description
This project was selected as an Honor winner in ARCHITECT’s 2022 Architecture & Interiors Awards, Architecture: Institutional category.
“Every element of this project from the site design to use of color fosters community and sparks joy while maximizing the efficient use of materials and utilization of natural resources.” — Juror Imani Day, AIA
Designed by Brooklyn-based Studio PHH Architecture, this pair of two-story, L-shaped structures defines a protected courtyard for a new school serving more than 300 kindergarten to 12th grade students in Ganthier, Haiti. Situated about an drive hour’s east of Port-au-Prince, the 18,840-square-feet pro bono complex utilizes local affordable materials, including concrete floors, concrete masonry unit walls, steel trusses, and metal roofing to ensure safety and durability in a hurricane and seismic zone.
Tall openings on opposing sides of each interior space, coupled with open clerestories above the second-floor, provide ample natural light, and doors enable cross ventilation. Varied widths of wall openings, panelized windows, and doors enable cross ventilation and create a rhythmic, asymmetrical pattern that aids in the transfer of bearing, uplift, and shear loads to the building’s foundations. The canted metal roof structure sits atop exposed steel trusses, and a covered exterior walkway connects each classroom along the courtyard face of the buildings
With a set of simple, elegant and accommodating forms, the project aspires to be a model and archetype for new schools in Haiti, thus the apt name, “La Référence.”
PROJECT CREDITS:
Project: La Référence, Ganthier, Haiti
Client/Owner: La Reference
Nonprofit: Konekte Princeton Haiti
Architect: Studio PHH Architecture, New York. Pierre-Henri Hoppenot, AIA
Structural Engineer: Eckersley O’Callaghan Engineers. Gregor Horstmeyer, Charlotte Escudier
General Contractor: J.S.C. Construction
Size: 18,840 square feet
Cost: $1,170,000 = ~62/SF