Yele Music Studio Image, Haiti Design Competition Winner, Building Project News

Yele Music Studio Design Contest, Haiti

Haiti Music studio in Cité Soleil, Caribbean – international student architecture competition Winners

Winner announced for music studio design competition, on behalf of Wyclef Jean’s charity Yéle Haiti

image of Yele Music Studio Contest winner

13 May, 2010

Yele Music Studio Design Contest Haiti

Today, John McAslan + Partners and Allied London have announced the winner of an international student competition to design a music studio in Cité Soleil (Port-au-Prince), Haiti, on behalf of Wyclef Jean and his charity Yéle Haiti. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) competition was launched prior to the devastating earthquake on 12 January to help instigate micro-enterprise opportunities and job creation for at-risk youth in the Cité Soleil area.

image of Yele Music Studio Contest winner

The competition winner is Christopher Morgan from Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, who along with second place winner Tak Kei Yip, a RIBA Part II student at Foster + Partners, London; and third place winner Christopher Bradley, a Post Part 1 Experience student at Norton Mayfield Architects LLP, Sheffield; will be awarded a share of a £1000 prize fund which has been donated by Allied London.

Christopher Morgan’s winning design ‘Broadcast Studio’ reaches into the spirit of the Haitian people and aims to empower the people of Cité Soleil with the opportunity to ‘make music with life’. The design incorporates two performance spaces – one opening towards the adjacent park and nearby waterfront, and another enclosed space which connects to Radio Boukman, the local radio station. Offering itself as a place not only for musicians, but for all who wish to make a music community, ‘Broadcast Studios’ is a place that is always open to the public through events. Musicians can perform as they record in the studio, which is elevated over the Cité Soleil to symbolise the empowering role of music.

images of Yele Music Studio Contest 2nd place

Tak Kei Yip’s proposal ‘Tent City’ music studio is an architectural translation of Haiti’s Tent City – a symbol of joy, unity and hope. This evocative use of the existing housing pattern impressed the judges.

images of Yele Music Studio Contest 3rd place

Christopher Bradley’s ‘The Air Brick’ proposal is constructed from found materials and features an internal courtyard to be used as a recording or community performance area.

The ideas competition, which attracted 108 submissions from secondary/high school and university/college students from around the world, was judged on criteria including: their ability to act as a beacon for the local neighbourhood, to deliver ‘a lot’ for a limited budget, and for their economic, social and environmental sustainability. A shortlist of fifteen submissions was selected by a technical jury from John McAslan + Partners and Arup. The final winner, second and third placeholders were selected by Wyclef Jean and his team, and John McAslan.

Wyclef Jean, founder of Yéle Haiti, commented, “My concept for the Yéle Music Studio in Cité Soleil was to combine making music with vocational training for youth interested in the music business. After the earthquake the architectural competition to design the studio became an ‘ideas’ competition. The winning design was able to engage the community by incorporating an outdoor performance space. This connection with the local community really caught the spirit of what Yéle is all about.”

John McAslan, chairman of John McAslan + Partners, said, “Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and congratulations to the three winners for their highly innovative proposals, which were chosen from over 100 submissions of a very high standard indeed.

“While the competition was initiated prior to the devastating earthquake which took place in January, its spirit is very much in keeping with the recovery efforts underway in Haiti at the moment. It is hugely important that micro-enterprise is instigated as part of the current rebuilding – helping communities to work together to create long-term change, especially for young Haitians under 21 years, who make up half the population. Clearly, it may be some time before we can realise the potential of a project such as this, while the city recovers from the immediate destruction that has occurred, however we hope that our project inspires hope that anything is possible.”

Third Place: ‘The Air Brick’ by Christopher Bradley

Second Place: ‘Tent City’ by Tak Kei Yip

Haiti – Background to the Country

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with the majority of Haiti’s 8 million residents living on less than US$1 per day.

Unemployment is close to 80 per cent, and more than half the population is under 21 years old.
The 2010 Haiti earthquake occurred on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 at 16:53 local time. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake: the Haitian Government reported that an estimated 230,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured, 1,000,000 made homeless and 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.

Yéle Haiti

Yéle Haiti is a grassroots movement that builds global awareness for Haiti while helping to transform the country through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment. Yéle’s community service programs include food distribution and mobilizing emergency relief. Grammy Award-winning musician, humanitarian and Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti Wyclef Jean founded Yéle Haiti in 2005.

Yéle Haiti’s mission is to create small-scale, manageable and replicable projects to contribute to Haiti’s long-term progress. Each initiative is imbued with Wyclef’s passion, as Yéle Haiti’s founder. Whether utilizing local hip-hop musicians to deliver awareness messages in forgotten neighbourhoods or bringing his famous friends to Haiti to support the movement, what Wyclef radiates is profound wishes for the country.

Each of Yéle’s projects is conceived to renew hope for Haitians to rebuild their nation. Yéle Haiti wants to project a new forward-thinking image that accurately reflects Haiti’s youthful population and their unique and irrepressible spirit, which is an integral part of their culture. We firmly believe that given a genuine opportunity to shape the future, Haiti’s youth will shock the world with their ability to take Haiti to the next level. For further information, please visit: http://www.yele.org/

John McAslan + Partners

John McAslan + Partners is a leading architectural and design practice, based in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, with a large portfolio of award-winning work in Britain and overseas. Encompassing urban design, infrastructure, commercial, residential, retail, education and the arts sectors, the practice has an outstanding track-record in transformational schemes involving culturally and historically significant buildings, including: the Grade I listed Modernist masterpiece, the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill on the South coast of England; the renowned Roundhouse arts venue in Camden, London; and the Grade II* listed Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, London.

JMP Initiatives are the practice’s community and environmental projects around the world. Working in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative and other NGOs, government agencies and private sector organisations, the practice leads and collaborates on built environment projects that aim to make a direct difference to people’s lives. Current projects include: the Victorian Iron Market in Port-au-Prince and housing settlement projects in Haiti; community schools and teacher training centres in Malawi; the Indian Institute of Advanced Nursing, Chennai, India; the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, Kenya; as well as education projects in Rwanda and India. Other Initiatives projects include the JMP-funded RIBA/ICE Bursary in the UK, which supports students and recent graduates to carry out small-scale interventions to improve life in deprived communities.

Around the world, John McAslan + Partners is working on: the £450M development of the Grade I listed King’s Cross Station in the heart of London, the transformation of the historic centre of the Stanislavsky family in Moscow, including a prominent mixed-use and residential building; and new cultural and apartment buildings within the Heart of Doha project in Qatar. Having just recently completed the new British Embassy building in Algiers, the studio is also designing a £120 million sustainable super-campus for Manchester Metropolitan University in Hulme; an innovative High School and Community Library at Craigmillar in Scotland; a major new high quality office and mixed-use development near St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London, known as 5 Cheapside; and the Olympic Energy Centres for the 2012 London Olympics.

For more information, please visit: www.mcaslan.co.uk and www.mcaslan-family-trust.com

Allied London

Allied London is a property development and investment company with a combined total of more than 180 years’ experience in UK commercial and residential property markets having managed, invested in and developed millions of square feet of real estate.

In the last ten years Allied has continued to deliver landmark projects across the UK from delivering a new contact centre cluster for Glasgow – Skypark, to creating a new ‘village’ in London – The Brunswick Centre and developing an important major new business quarter for Manchester – Spinningfields.

Allied London’s business philosophy is based on acquiring and developing secondary properties (often unwanted by today’s sophisticated investor market) which can then be repositioned as part of a much larger primary masterplan initiative.

A focused and innovative approach is applied to each location with the ultimate goal of creating value. In practical terms, this is achieved by repositioning a site through imaginative development and redevelopment, or through state-of-the-art refurbishment and change of use. All the company’s schemes — as well as its own business philosophy — reflect the growing demands on cities to be dynamic, modern and sustainable communities.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has a dedicated unit to help clients and procurement professional select the best designer or design solution for their particular project. RIBA Competitions has an international reputation for organising selection processes that encourage excellence in design in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and the public realm.

Haiti Student Design Competition

Design Contest News Update

‘In the aftermath of the devastating 13 January 2010 earthquake, the focus of activity for Yéle and other organisations working in Haiti will be to provide humanitarian aid and ongoing support to those affected. The impact of these events on the Music Studio project and competition process will be communicated as soon as the situation on the ground in Haiti becomes clearer. Until this time, the Competition remains as before’.

18 Dec 2009

Launch of International Student Open Design Competition for Yéle Music Studio, Haiti

Yéle Haiti and RIBA Competitions are pleased to announce the launch of an International Student Open Design Competition, established by John McAslan + Partners and Allied London, for a new music studio facility in Cit? Soleil (Port-au-Prince), Haiti.

Yéle was founded by the Haitian-born, Grammy-Award winning musician and record producer Wyclef Jean. Yéle Haiti is a grassroots movement which aims to raise global awareness for Haiti and transform the country through programmes in education, sports, the arts and environment. The new circa one thousand square-foot community music studio is a typical example of Yéle Haiti’s initiatives which embrace Wyclef Jean’s passion for music and the country of his birth. The projects strive to renew hope and self-belief in forgotten neighbourhoods and to help Haiti’s youthful population rebuild their nation.

The new music studio will be built in Cité Soleil and combine the recording of music and radio programming with vocational training, micro-enterprise opportunities and job creation for at-risk youth in that area. The studio is a joint venture between Yéle Haiti and two for-profit companies – Sak Pasé Records, Wyclef Jean’s own record label, and Radio Boukman, a popular community radio station in Cité Soleil. The joint venture arrangement will ensure that the Yéle Music Studio will be entirely self-financing within 18 months, while at the same time remaining committed to using music and radio to promote development and social issues.

Lending his support to the project, Wyclef Jean commented: ‘Music is what I live, breathe and sleep. Where I come from, music is not just notes. It is a way of survival. That’s how important the Yéle Music Studio is. Building this project in Cité Soleil is a matter of life and death’.

John McAslan said: ‘My practice is working with Wyclef Jean’s charity Yéle, President Bill Clinton in his capacity as the UN Special Envoy, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Haitian Government on a number of projects to help transform opportunities for communities in this beautiful but ravaged country. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, so built projects like the music studio are essential. My ambition is that young architects from around the world will be inspired to create some fantastic designs for the music studio and by doing so, help build a better future for the young people of Cité Soleil’.

Following the conclusion of the competition, Yéle Haiti intends to start work on the new music studio as soon as practicable. The winning student will be invited to collaborate on developing their design ideas with the Haitian-based executive architect responsible for realising and delivering the project.

Yéle Recording Studio Competition : further information on original contest news

Haiti Earthquake Buildings : Article 25 Monthly Report – It’s Buildings That Kill People

10 Dec 2009

JMP, Allied London, and the RIBA announce international music studio design competition on behalf of Wyclef Jean’s charity Yéle Haiti

John McAslan + Partners and Allied London have established a new RIBA international student design competition for a music studio in Cité Soleil (Port-au-Prince), Haiti, on behalf of Wyclef Jean and his charity Yéle Haiti. To be launched on Friday 18th December, the competition will be open to students from around the world.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with the majority of Haiti’s 8 million residents living on less than US$1 per day. Unemployment is close to 80 per cent, and more than half the population is under 21 years old.

Wyclef Jean in Haiti:

photo : Yele Haiti

Yele was founded by the Haitian-born, Grammy Award-winning musician and record producer Wyclef Jean, formerly of The Fugees. Yele Haiti is a grassroots movement which aims to raise global awareness for Haiti and transform the country through the regeneration of forgotten neighbourhoods and programmes in education, sports, the arts and environment. As Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti, Jean’s enduring passion is to help his country’s youthful population to rebuild their nation.

Yéle Haiti is building a music studio in Cité Soleil that will combine the recording of music and radio programming with vocational training, micro-enterprise opportunities and job creation for at-risk youth in that area. The studio is a joint venture between Yéle Haiti, Sak Pasé Records (Wyclef Jean’s own record label) and Radio Boukman, a popular community radio station in Cité Soleil. The joint venture arrangement will be committed to using music and radio to promote development and social issues.

Wyclef Jean said, “Music is what I live, breathe and sleep. Where I come from, music is not just notes. It is a way of survival. That’s how important the Yéle Music Studio is. Building this project in Cité Soleil is a matter of life and death.”
John McAslan said, “John McAslan + Partners has been working with Wyclef Jean’s charity Yéle, the Clinton Global Initiative and other organisations in Haiti for a number of years. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, so built projects like the music studio are essential in helping to generate an ongoing income for the community. Our hope is that young architects from around the world will be inspired to create some fantastic designs for the music studio and by doing so, help to provide a better future for Cité Soleil’s young people.”

The competition for Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Music Studio launched on 18 Dec 2009.

Music Studio Design Competition Haiti image / information received 101209

Location: Haiti, Caribbean