Home Work

Vicki May’s students tackle affordable housing for Haitians.

“I like real projects that serve a real need,” says engineering associate professor Vicki May. “I leave it open to my students how to pursue a goal.” That’s how her classes got involved in building prototype elements for affordable housing in Haiti, a Dartmouth project inspired by Tuck professor Vijay Govindarajan. “Students borrowed a lot of ideas” for what might work in Haiti, May says. One result was a roof made of bamboo, a “cheap weed,” says May, that isn’t currently used in Haitian housing. Students split and lashed bamboo to create a roof that can siphon—and collect—rainwater as well as “breathe” during hurricanes. Students also invested time and muscle into building a compressed-earth block press that produces earthen bricks for walls. Both will be part of model homes that Thayer School lec- turer Jack Wilson hopes to construct in Port- au-Prince soon as inspiration for Haitians. He, May and several students have already traveled to Haiti for the project. “I thought students would be fired up by the idea, and they were,” says May. “They have a project, they get to travel and they’re doing something useful.”