Architect urges builders

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Sustainable construction seems to be the result of specialist training meeting with pragmatism on the construction site. This is what architect Robert Thompson says is required for building structures that work with the natural world rather than against it.

Thompson is a Jamaican who has lived and worked in Trinidad and Tobago for about 15 years.

His studio, Ackee Workshop, boasts of liking hillsides.

“I have a special connection to precipitous communities and living on hillsides,” he explained.

Thompson grew up in Jamaica’s Cockpit county – a limestone formation of rounded hills and valleys.

The 2021 rainy season has been very active so far in T&T. And there have been several reports of homes being damaged or destroyed by landslides across the country.

Thompson said at the most basic level, when you are building on a slope, you want to work with the land rather than against it.

A recent construction he managed in Saut D’Eau, Maraval, is a perfect example of working with the land.

There is a ravine that separates the property from the main road. As such, the team had to make a decision regarding how to accommodate the owner’s vehicles.

“We built a parking structure that bridges the ravine with a footbridge to the main house, and the main house is built along one contour,” Thompson said.

“It takes the shape of the contour so we don’t end up with a deep floor plane.”

They used gardens with courtyards to link the parts to each other. Too often, homeowners are inspired by properties they see in other parts of the world. But trying to reproduce a house built for a Miami neighbourhood, in Cascade in Trinidad, does not always work out well, according to Thompson.

He advised that you should “understand where you are putting this thing, and understand the land you are working with and balance your needs with what’s capable, with what’s possible.”

He said homeowners who are interested in building sustainably should employ the use of three main experts.

Firstly, consult a geospatial engineer who can give you a report on the land you have purchased and provide the information your architect will use to design something the earth can support. The civil engineer works with the architect to solve the problems.

He insisted, however, that for most of these experts, responsible construction is the goal. Thompson said he is troubled by the wanton destruction of land to build something that would ultimately cause problems for the rest of the community. The country, he said, is littered with stories of residents facing environmental disasters that are often triggered by construction elsewhere.

Thompson has urged would be home-owners and developers to work closely with their builders.

Many builders engage in problem solving based on their years of construction work across the country.

His parting salvo, though, is that homeowners should, “try to curb their convenience.” Instead of creating a structure that needs air conditioning to be habitable, it would be better to construct a home that works with the wind and light source to provide sufficient cooling naturally.

You can hear more from Robert Thompson and his concepts of what makes for sustainable building practice on a panel organised by the Green Screen Film Festival on architecture and design that is responsive to the Caribbean landscape. It begins at 7 pm on the festival’s Facebook page on Monday October 11.