PORT-AU-PRINCE - From hemp to Styrofoam, from bamboo to recycled rubble from Haiti's streets, ideas are flowing here on how best to rebuild the 200,000 homes and buildings damaged or lost in last year's quake.
More than a year after the capital was devastated in the January 12, 2010 earthquake, real reconstruction has yet to start with Port-au-Prince streets still strewn with an estimated 10 million cubic meters (yards) of rubble.
A long-delayed conference this week gathered hundreds of international firms aiming to help the Caribbean country "build back better."
At Hotel Karibe, international and local homebuilders shared blueprints and dollhouse sized-models of Haitian homes at an outdoor exposition.
"It's basically Styrofoam with a cement coating on the outside," said Scandia Pacific president Kim Christiansen, showing off the materials developed by his company based in Kirkland, Washington.
He works with foam building materials, but says the company will build with whatever materials the Haitian people want.
"That's what Haiti needs to get involved in. Not the old stuff," Christiansen said. "The pyramids have been around for a long time. Stone, brick. What we need to do is something new. Pre-fab."
But David Mosrie, whose Push Design firm is based in North Carolina, said most companies were only paying lip service to innovation.
His proposed home is built entirely of hemp, pounded into fibers and molded together with a limestone derivative.
But asked whether fun-seekers could smoke it, he laughed, saying: "It takes 2,500 pounds (1,130 kilograms) to get high. So good luck."
Homebuilders traded business cards and queries, but spoke mostly to each other as no real funding opportunities were offered...
- abs-cbnnews
More than a year after the capital was devastated in the January 12, 2010 earthquake, real reconstruction has yet to start with Port-au-Prince streets still strewn with an estimated 10 million cubic meters (yards) of rubble.
A long-delayed conference this week gathered hundreds of international firms aiming to help the Caribbean country "build back better."
At Hotel Karibe, international and local homebuilders shared blueprints and dollhouse sized-models of Haitian homes at an outdoor exposition.
"It's basically Styrofoam with a cement coating on the outside," said Scandia Pacific president Kim Christiansen, showing off the materials developed by his company based in Kirkland, Washington.
He works with foam building materials, but says the company will build with whatever materials the Haitian people want.
"That's what Haiti needs to get involved in. Not the old stuff," Christiansen said. "The pyramids have been around for a long time. Stone, brick. What we need to do is something new. Pre-fab."
But David Mosrie, whose Push Design firm is based in North Carolina, said most companies were only paying lip service to innovation.
His proposed home is built entirely of hemp, pounded into fibers and molded together with a limestone derivative.
But asked whether fun-seekers could smoke it, he laughed, saying: "It takes 2,500 pounds (1,130 kilograms) to get high. So good luck."
Homebuilders traded business cards and queries, but spoke mostly to each other as no real funding opportunities were offered...
- abs-cbnnews
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