The retrofit of the Caravelle Community Clinic in Port au Prince Haiti is complete. In 2011 Architecture for Humanity were contacted by MERLIN, the UK medical relief charity, to assess and retrofit the Port au Prince clinic that was damaged in the 2010 earthquake.

AFH carried out a full building assessment and subsequently a sketch design was drawn up. In October, Dorothy Miller & Michael Spinello prepared a detailed phasing and construction plan of the project designed to the most recent MTPTC standards of earthquake proof construction in Haiti. After much consideration for such precise and technical building refurbishment, Pirotech Enterprise de Costruction were chosen to carry out the work. The careful demolishion and reconstruction of the walls began in November and drew to a close before the Christmas break. Congratulations to all involved - 1 more earthquake proof building in Haiti.

San Francisco isn't exactly on the way from Ireland to Haiti. All the same Gerry Reilly decided to pay us a visit and maybe even do a bit of work before returning to his post in Port-au-Prince. As an architecture design fellow, Gerry manages building projects at the Rebuilding Center for Architecture for Humanity. He's been with the Center since October 2010 working closely with several school projects. As a result the stories of the development of the two newest schools–Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, in Montrouis, and École La Dignité, near Jacmel–are etched onto his brain. Students Rebulid spent some time last Wednesday getting some details and generally nerding out on rebuilding in Haiti.

Reporting by Zac Taylor for Students Rebuild

Earlier this week, I had a moment to catch up with Hiromi Tabei, Architecture for Humanity’s Program Coordinator for Japan, to talk about the status of Students Rebuild’s projects in the Tohoku region. Her recent visit with community partners throughout Tohoku offers insight on how the needs of Tohoku’s young people are inspiring our rebuilding efforts in Japan.

"In the developing world, decent, affordable housing and productivity are inextricably linked." Hasan Alemdar of the Equality & Opportunity Foundation visited headquarters last month for an Open Mic outlying this relationship, and how a $500 house can address it.

Hasan makes clear that simply designing a housing unit will not solve deeply-rooted economic problems. He looks to the world's largest urban slums, like those of Dhaka and Mumbai. Here, twenty million people "live in a geographic area that is impossible to contain within an urban setting."

Now is the time to make those promises that we hate to break - the dreaded New Years resolution. We all want to lose a little weight, but we really want to know what are your design aspirations for 2012?

You can remain anonymous or, if you are feeling bold in your promise, add your name and/or email.

While most people are focused on the end of the year and the beginning of 2012, a number of our friends, partners and colleagues in the Philippines are rallying behind the recovery efforts going on post Typhoon Sendong (Washi).

As we have limited resources in country we are making a contribution to a couple of groups we've worked with for short term and long term recovery.

A facebook group has formed to see if there is enough support for us to do a expanded response. If you are interested, please join and let us know how you can help.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Start date: Immediate

Position Type: Full-Time

Description:
If you are passionate about web development and want to make a difference, Architecture for Humanity has a Web Developer position open. The Web Developer is responsible for developing and maintaining our websites: www.architectureforhumanity.org and www.openarchitecturenetwork.org.