The Gingerbread Houses of Port-au-Prince, Haiti

This report summarizes the research of the Fall 2015 Advanced Preservation Planning and Policy Studio at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. The studio engaged students from historic preservation, urban planning, and real estate development in a study of how the Gingerbread houses of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, can be preserved within the city's diverse urban environment and create positive benefits for its communities. Building on previous efforts by World Monuments Fund, students worked with the Fondation connaissance et liberté (FOKAL) as the studio client, as well as with Haitian students from the Université d’Etat, Université Quisqueya, and the Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP). The team undertook a field survey of the densest concentration of these houses in Port-au-Prince and their urban context, resulting in mapping, data visualization and analyses, and proposed interventions at the neighborhood level.