A New Job

Starting next week Monday, I will be in the post of architect at the Urban Development Coorporation, specifically under the Lift-Up Jamaica Programme. You could describe the programme as one of social development, and for that reason, I may find mysef all over the island, and in the inner city. Learning all around.
Now if Tropical Storm Beta would give us a break.

Water, Water Everywhere

Katrina. Rita. Wilma. The Weather Channel is practically screeching that this is the first season with three major hurricanes. I drove through a section of Clarendon on Monday, and saw houses and schools with water up to the windows. Jamaica, while not hit directly by any of the Big Three, has experienced continuous rain for maybe about two straight weeks and flooding for one week due to Wilma. It is actually raining right now.
I was asked if builders and planners do not consider these aspects when building and constructing, even laying out large schemes (some of these are in the low-lying regions of Portmore and are now simply under water). To tell the truth, I think that most of us do not.

Tropical Design and Life

A lot of Caribbean architects have one concern or the other about designing for the tropics; but ne of the things that I have always liked to consider is not simply the physical reaction to tropicality (I'm sure this is a word), but the thinking process of a tropical person who will live in a particular place. Not just tropical building, but tropical thinking. A lot of our Caribbean style (arguments still fester over this one) is said to be just mutations of colonial influence; but the hot winds, the flaming sunsets, the sudden tamtrums of rain, this affects how a person thinks and affects their environment.