Haiti struggles in every meaningful statistical category. It has poor and inadequate infrastructure, education, and health. On top of this, it is weak economically and unable to respond effectively to inevitable disaster. These mass deficiencies have created serious consequences that work in a brutal chain reaction, resulting in unexpected and increasing severity. The summation of these deficiencies choke Haiti’s ability to sustain itself.

Furthermore, essential infrastructure and services are lacking at the community core which is the major obstacle to positive change in the country. The capital, human resources, and government needed to implement this infrastructure and services are impossible to collect and coordinate. The way to work around these roadblocks is through decentralized, unitized technology, bringing powerful, incremental change.

This project targets Haiti’s core deficiencies directly and integrate them into a singular idea: a decentralized, unitized pod, loaded with technology, infrastructure, education, and health services, multiplied at the urban scale. This will power-up Haiti incrementally. A single unit is calibrated to universallly facilitate various types of sites while providing resources to support and advance 100 people per day. This solution can be applicable to all developing countries.

This project was exhibited at Dwell On Design at the LA Convention Center and was published in the most recent Neil Spiller book, “Educating Architects.” It was also the catalyst for the Morphosis project, “Life Tree,” which is under construction in Martissant, Haiti.

These small pods, when multipled on a large scale, operate as a sign of both content and optimism in a place that desperately needs both.

By providing real, dependable services that help advance local communites, the physical form and graphics of the design become a sort of iconic symbol associated with that content. The sign becomes a reason for optimism—that something new, exciting, and transformative is happening.