Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

Coeur de Soula via www.skyscrapercity.com The Focus city is more than just housing.  When you look at the overall idea, it is to place residents close to jobs, and key infrastructure, building nodes along a roadway, or rail line. One of the central themes has been that La Gonave should focus on mid-rise to high-rise buildings.  The lack of heavy equipment on the island to build high-rises will be a reason for the initial focus city to have mid-rise buildings.  Within a housing area, central parts of the project will have parks, laundry facilities, small retail stores, schools, small health clinics, and even police substations. The core theme is to have very little streets and mostly use pathways.  These pathways will allow for regular pedestrian use, and keep vehicle traffic away.  By having key infrastructure like parks and schools central to the neighborhood, it makes the areas more efficient and financially attractive.  Having the core designed ...

I was sent this picture of what the first initial housing would look like in the Focus City area.  These mid-rise buildings would have retail on the bottom floor with residences on the above floor.   These buildings would not have a large amount of parking.  And instead of 50 rooms, these buildings hold almost 400 units. Let me first discet this plan.  Starting with the gravel road.  Hurko mentions that while there will be a main gravel road that is 2 lanes wide, it isn't pictured here well.  If you look off to the right of the image, you see a small piece of that gravel road along with a line of trees.  Also this photo doesn't contain the 2 MW wind turbines.  I'm told that the trees will be a flowering type of tree, possibly honeysuckle trees, which bee's love.  They mention that nearby will be farms, also pictured off to the right.  On these farms will be bee farms and fruit tree farms. Off from the 2 land road, will be another...

While I mentioned in a previous blog it makes sense to build dense, given the island of Gonave's size, but to build using concrete is also important.  This is due to Gonave being in a hurricane zone as well as earthquakes. I want to break down how the first housing blocks will look, streets, utilities, retail, etc.  Today I will tackle streets. For now I will talk in generalities.  Let's take the buildings in the bottom right (2 white and grey buildings). The first construction could be easily done with two towers.  These buildings are about 35 stories tall.  There is a much smaller building in the middle of the two, which will usually contain retail, laundry facilities, small amount of office space, etc. So how do you start with these two buildings, that will eventually look like this large housing project, and connect it with roads?  Simply put, you don't.  The best thing for Gonave initially is to avoid massive road infrastructure, gas ...

Housing on Gonave is something that is very important.  Initially housing will either be small houses for those who live further away from Anse-a-Galets.  While closer to the new central business district, housing high rises are important.  These structures, unlike rural housing, will be made of concrete and multiple stories. The above image would be perfect for Gonave.  This photo represents mostly housing, with some office mixed in.  This could be Gonave's new central business district.  In fact the actual landscape with the freeways, parks, and some office buildings would fit to house most in Anse-a-Galets, and any new residents that may come to live on Gonave.  The thousands of housing units you see, are much more affordable due to not needing as much utility infrastructure.  Everything in very compact.  Even a mall could be built inside of this huge housing complex along with future light rail lines.  This large complex would b...

The creation of a Commercial District on Gonave will be very minor in the beginning.  Food stalls, clothing stalls, and wet markets will make up the majority of commerce.  The amount of infrastructure such as water, sanitation, and electric are more manageable.  Also the requirements for large amounts of infrastructure will be less.  On top of that, the cost to build and implement this initial district will be very affordable. In a previous blog I mentioned how to power Gonave using wind turbines .  This coupled with some housing developments will create a strong commercial district in Gonave, and create a tourist attraction.  This district should be built first before establishing a tourist economy. Go Gonave! ---------------------- Kreyasyon an nan yon distri Komèsyal sou Gonave pral trè minè depi nan konmansman an . Depa Manje, depa rad, ak mache mouye ap fè moute majorite a nan komès. Kantite lajan...

Work is still progressing on the Gonave Government Portal .  You can see the updates here http://gonavegovernment.webs.com/ .  Somethings have been streamlined to make the page function a little better. Visitors will now be able to see the local time, and temperature in the region.  There are three currently inactive buttons that are mainly for residents of Gonave.  These buttons are: Housing, Health & Medical Services, and Employment. The layout of the page is different as well.  There is a column on the left of the page, along with a top picture banner, and a label bar which still has the Home page, Contact Us, and Focus City. The left column, which was mentioned before, is for News Updates, current time and temperature.   The Let's Build Haiti button, and Gonave Newsletter are still on the page and both of these items are active. The site is a work in progress, look for additional changes in the future.