Climate Change, Education and Sustainable Development in Dominica

November 30, 2022

Michal Bar and Arch. Yehonatan Bar, IsraAID

Hazard mapping workshop, June 2018, Dominica

Village schools are the heart of community life in Dominica. Informed by traditional building techniques, a new school-building initiative will strengthen community cohesion: as shelters and protection against hurricanes, and as a symbol (and a reminder) of the historical commitment to resilience and regeneration.

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria pounded the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, home to around 75,000 people. Winds of 185 mph demolished over 90% of the island’s infrastructure, including homes, roads, and public institutions, and caused at least 37 fatalities. As the island recovers and rebuilds, the overwhelming level of destruction caused by the hurricane has generated a public discussion around issues of climate resilience. Overcoming future hazards would require the adoption of new methods of construction and design.

School buildings perform a vital socio-cultural function in Dominica’s most remote rural villages, where the school is often the community’s sturdiest building. The island’s education system serves over 18,000 children through 50 early childhood centers and 73 schools, reaching students, teachers, and parents in every community on the island. Schools, therefore, provide a unique and ready-made audience for inculcating a culture of climate resilience and preparedness. In light of this, the Ministry of Education, in partnership with UNICEF and IsraAID specialists, undertook the challenge of designing school structures able to withstand potential climate hazards.

Pedagogy, Climate, and Community

As a first step to addressing this challenge, the team analyzed the local structures that had survived the hurricane to identify best practices. This was coupled with a mapping of the needs of the education system and students, and the broader context of the local community. Thus, an understanding of how school buildings are used provided a conceptual anchor for creating a sustainable, locally-driven solution for improving safety and resilience.

The model developed by the team promoted a shared understanding of design principles, outlined the considerations that lay at the base of resilient school design in Dominica, and “reconnected the dots” by mapping existing knowledge and tools.

Pedagogy, Climate, and Community

Drawing lessons from the local community

At the center of our best practices study was the Kalinago indigenous community. The Kalinago, a pre-Columbian indigenous island-based tribe, have resided in the Caribbean since as early as 5000 BC. Because Dominica was the last Caribbean island to be colonized, it remained a home for pre-Columbian tribal societies, like the Kalinago, that had been wiped out in other locations. Today, a community of 3,000 Kalinago lives in their self-named territory in Dominica.

The rich cultural heritage of the Kalinago includes the use of traditional construction practices that can be adapted to answer contemporary needs. Using raw materials from their surroundings, Kalinago builders create structures

that are well-adapted to their environment. Their Karbet, a traditional communal longhouse used for village gatherings and celebrations, presented an opportunity to adopt their traditional approach with a modern twist. We found that using adapted Kalinago indigenous construction methods not only sheds light on how to face up to climate challenges but also has an empowering effect on local communities.

Drawing lessons from the local community

The local context and pedagogical needs

The primary function of a school building is the daily education of children. In addition, building design can encourage specific behaviors and promote respectful and safe learning environments. Through extensive review and a participatory data collection process, the team examined crucial features of the school premises.

Issues considered included classroom size; placement of window and door locks; location, structure, and division of toilet facilities, taking into account sensitivities around sex and gender; outdoor spaces and playgrounds; and sitting management offices and teachers’ rooms to allow maximum supervision. Considering the local aspects of school design, the team also found that integrating traditional aesthetics within school structures can contribute to students’ understanding of their traditions, history, and local identity.

Environment and climate-oriented design

Climate resilience and environmental design go hand in hand: structural conditions and energy efficiency are inherently linked, distinctly interdependent, and entirely complementary. In the case of Dominica, the harsh terrain—tested by some of the world’s heaviest rainfall, persistent seismic activity, and the island's location within the hurricane belt—defines the country’s need to address the high vulnerability of its infrastructure to disasters.

Indigenous construction models, such as the Karbet, can be leveraged to create hurricane-resilient schools. The Karbet, like many other indigenous shelters, is based on an A-frame section. This formation gives the building high wind resistance, as it transfers the structural loads generated by high winds directly to the ground. The tall-steep-roof section, combined with the long-rectangular-rounded layout, reduces wind turbulence around the building and is a good example of simple design principles adapted well to extreme climate conditions.

“In addition, appropriate usage of local raw materials has environmental and cultural benefits, such as climate compatibility and the conservation of traditional crafts and aesthetic values.”

The extensive damage to schools caused by Hurricane Maria dealt a heavy blow to the education system, which struggled to resume its routine. Thus, one of the key features of our process is imparting “off-grid” capabilities to school buildings, such as water storage equipment, water supply through harvesting gravitational systems, solar panels, and sewage treatment facilities. These features can improve resilience, and the capacity of schools to recover quickly and support nearby communities in emergency situations.

An A-frame section. This formation gives the building high wind resistance, as it transfers the structural loads generated by high-winds directly to the ground the long-rectangular-rounded layout, reduces wind turbulence around the building

Building material

Traditionally, all the construction materials used by the Kalinago people came from the land around them. Of course, today, industrial and imported building materials are more readily available. We found, however, that some of the Kalinago's traditional raw materials for construction performed very well, even within Dominica’s harsh weather conditions.

“Amazingly enough, here in the Kalinago territory… some community members rebuilt their wind-proof houses solely from natural materials, anchoring wood trunks in the ground to stabilize the structure and using banana leaves as a sealing material,’’ a Kalinago community mobilizer explained. To some extent, the lack of available industrial and imported construction materials in the months after Maria pushed the community to revert to previous practices and utilize traditional building methods for reconstruction.

In addition, appropriate usage of local raw materials has environmental and cultural benefits, such as climate compatibility and the conservation of traditional crafts and aesthetic values. In a broader sense, the use of local resources, suppliers, labor, and services can create income-generating opportunities, through which the school can help revive the local economy.

Thinking community

School buildings can and do serve as the heart of a community. In rural Dominica, schools serve as a place of gathering and can be counted as community shelters during emergencies.

The traditional Karbets, being large buildings around 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, were also used as community shelters in times of need. 17th-century visitors to Dominica even described the giant Karbets as reaching up to 145 feet long, capable of hosting more than 150 people.

An interesting example of how to blend traditional and modern design can be seen with the Community Resource Centre in the Kalinago Territory (pictured), which was built in 2015. With a design inspired by indigenous culture, the center proved itself as a durable building while retaining full structural integrity during the last hurricane season. This structure is a distinct expression of local heritage, materials, and aesthetics, which contributes to local pride and increases the community’s sense of ownership over the center.

Conclusion

Through dialogue with the local community and observing local indigenous and vernacular construction techniques, this article aims to provide today's designers with valuable insights for approaching planning in regions prone to extreme natural events such as hurricanes and earthquakes. These recommendations for multi-hazard resilient school design are inspired by local community knowledge, which has been refined for generations. Integrating this knowledge into the school structure can amplify the importance of local culture and traditions, and support cultural diversity. This promotes a sense of physical and cultural security, both during and after the hurricane season. Thus, we can create buildings with higher resilience to natural hazards, and optimal adaptation to environmental conditions.