Montserrat Needs To Think Green In Architectural Design, Says Island’s Only Female Architect
KINGSTON, Jamaica (GIU) — Financial constraints should not restrict architects from finding ways to “Go Green” on Montserrat, says Public Works Department (PWD) architect designate Linda Dias.
Dias recently sat on a panel of guest critics for the final design studio presentations of the first and second year Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies at her alma mater, the Caribbean School of Architecture at UTech in Jamaica.
The panel consisted of some of the student’s lecturers, including two Jamaicans who have worked as architects at the PWD for the government of Montserrat, David Cuthbert and Vivian Gordon.
Students were required to design a dwelling for an array of characters that included a personal physiotherapist and her family, an artist and her family, an elderly couple, and a young professional couple.
“These presentations were based primarily on implementing sustainable elements into the designs for a number of different characters in multiple site locations. In Montserrat, we tend to design in a vacuum – being forced (because of financial constraints) to consider the present, with very little consideration being lent to future maintenance and self-sustainability of our island’s built environment,” Dias noted.
“If we are able to enhance key elements in our architectural designs such as passive cooling, implementing the use of more sustainable materials and construction techniques — and even properly strategizing our rainwater collection and distribution, we will be able to see a vast reduction in our annual maintenance expenses.
“Green Architecture” isn’t just about installing solar panels and including more vegetation into our designs – it’s about considering the future of our structures as much as we consider their present.”
Dias, who is the only local female architect on island, works for the government of Montserrat and also runs her own local design firm Aeon Studios.
Montserrat Needs To Think Green In Architectural Design, Says Island’s Only Female Architect courtesy of Caribbeannewsnow.com
In Haiti Mobile Money Transfers Fund New Homes With Help from Digicel
In Haiti, while two-thirds of the population has access to mobile phones, just 10 percent have bank accounts.
A new UNDP initiative looks to use mobile money transfer technology to address that problem, and build homes in the process.
More than 2,000 mobile money transfers of $500 each are planned in the next three months to 1,000 low-income families to help them buy construction materials to build new homes, the UNDP announced.
The programme is reportedly the first-ever mobile money transfer system in support of post-disaster housing reconstruction.
The initiative, which was commissioned by the UNDP and developed by Digicel, helps boost financial inclusion in Haiti.
The mobile transfers, along with mobile phone vouchers, mean recipients can access a mobile phone checking account and then use those funds to buy things like cement, iron and wood.
“Mobile phone vouchers create additional security and convenience here in Haiti, especially for women who might feel more vulnerable when carrying large sums of money,” said Jessica Faieta, senior UNDP Country Director for Haiti. “With safer housing conditions, this initiative will also encourage the permanent return of camp residents to their neighbourhoods and repaired homes.”
According to the UNDP, 4,000 families have registered to take part in the project, which could benefit up to 12,000 people.
In Haiti, Mobile Money Transfers Fund New Homes, With Help from Digicel Courtesy of Caribjournal.com
Jamaican Government To Acquire Marcus Garvey’s Birthplace
Jamaican Government To Acquire Marcus Garvey’s Birthplace
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, Monday August 22, 2011 – Cabinet has approved the compulsory acquisition of the birthplace of the country’s first National Hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
Executive Director at the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) Laleta Davis-Mattis said her agency and the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture are working assiduously to rehabilitate the birthplace of the National Hero, located at of 32 Market Street, St. Ann’s Bay, St. Ann, in the north of the island.
“One of the issues that has debilitated our activities in the last couple of years is the fact that the place is occupied and the ownership has always been an issue,” she said. “But the Government has taken the life of Marcus Garvey and the influence of Marcus Garvey on our lives so seriously, that it has approved the compulsory acquisition of 32 Market Street”.
She said the process of acquisition is in train and the office of the Commissioner of Lands has started its work.
“The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, through Minister Olivia Grange, in association with the Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government, Shahine Robinson are now seeking to relocate the residents there, with a view to having the place ready for ground breaking in October, 2011,” Davis-Mattis revealed.
Other plans for Garvey’s birthplace, she said, should see to the landscaping of the property and the erection of a memorial wall.
Acting Permanent Secretary and Principal Director for Culture in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Sydney Bartley, said Marcus Garvey had influenced the lives of the Jamaican people and it was the country’s responsibility, if it wanted to pay tribute and homage to him, “to carry on his project in our daily lives and in our communities”.
“More than speaking the words to glorify Marcus Garvey, is to carry out actions that emulate and continue the very project he stood for, which is the advancement of the welfare of the people who are disadvantaged and vulnerable in our society,” he said.
The Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain recent coverage of his recent trip to Cuba which is part of the Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain No Reservation series.
Part 1
Part 2
Part3
Anthony Bourdain is a celebrity chef, world traveler, bestselling author, and host of The Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.
“My whole life, cooking has been about control. Traveling and eating are about letting things happen.”
- Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain – No Reservations – Cuba
Videos courtesy of Kumquatsta. Visit kumquatsta’s youtube channel by clicking here
Anthony Bourdain No Reservations On The Travel Channel click here
Havana, Cuba (CNN) — Ernest Hemingway hasn’t lived here in over 50 years but Finca Vigia is still his home.
In the garden there’s his boat “the Pilar” used to hunt marlin and then Nazi subs off Cuba during World War II. Scrawled on a bathroom wall next to a scale are the daily records of what the writer weighed.
Lizards and frogs he caught rest in jars filled with formaldehyde. Antelopes and buffalo heads taken as trophies from African safaris decorate the walls. Yellowing Time and The Field magazines are still on the shelves.
Now a museum, a visitor to Finca Vigia or “lookout farm,” could be mistaken for thinking Hemingway might walk in the door at any second.
“Our philosophy was to recover the environment and surroundings,” said Ada Rosa Alfonso Rosales, the museum’s curator. “This was not just a mere house, this was his home.”
Hemingway lived in the home on a hilltop on the outskirts of Havana from 1939 to 1960. The years were pivotal ones for the famed American writer and for his adopted home of Cuba.
In 1953, Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for his book the “Old Man and the Sea” about an aging Cuban fisherman’s epic duel with a marlin. Six years later revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro took control of the island, leading to the eventual breakdown in relations with the United States.
Battling depression, Hemingway killed himself in Ketchum, Idaho in 1961. Even though the Finca Vigia receives over 40,000 visitors a year, the house nearly fell victim to Cuba’s unforgiving environment.
“This is a very humid climate,” Alfonso said. “We’re on top of a hill where winds and even hurricanes batter the house.” Read the rest of this entry »
Avid football fans around the world eagerly await the opening of the FIFA World Cup on June 11th, 2010, less than three days away. South Africa plays the host country of the 19th World Cup tournament, having beaten nations such as Morocco and Egypt in the bidding process. Five new stadiums were built to accommodate the 32 teams that will compete. Of the five new stadiums, the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban has the largest capacity at 70,000 spectators.
The Moses Mabhida Stadium is a stadium in Durban, South Africa, named after Moses Mabhida, a former General Secretary of the South African Communist Party. It is intended to be a world-class multi-use stadium.
The stadium is adjacent to the Kings Park Stadium, in the Kings Park Sporting Precinct, and the Durban street circuit used for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.
The second installment of Cutlass & Cane’s “Inspiration For Retirement Back Home” series. Recent winner of a 2009 Green Good Design Award, Bali’s Alila Villas Uluwatu, Balinese-inspired villas on open-air structures, were designed by the Singapore-based architecture firm Woha, a company known for its sustainable housing projects.
The site is situated on the southern coast of Bali where individual villas are tiered and oriented for maximum exposure to the panoramic views of the sea and the horizon. The architectural language combines refreshing contemporary lines and detailing with traditional materials that allude to the rich Balinese culture and built heritage. The interiors are lushly furnished and resonate with a soft, clean chic-ness that contrasts with the rich and rugged gardens and site.
Although located in the Maldives, we figure this can serve as inspiration for those of us planning on retiring back home. Featured are the Alila Villas Hadahaa by SCDA Architects.
