
Brent Suski age: 25
Abby Meuser age: 29
Adviser: Gayla Lindt
Suski and Meuser learned about Ducis, known for its rich agricultural land irrigated by a canal, while working for Architecture for Humanity and Sodade, a Port-au-Prince planning firm. The two students decided to make the coastal town in Haiti the focus of their joint master’s project, which they completed in 2012. First, the students held community workshops to help identify the town’s needs. Then they designed a comprehensive vision—including the construction of a new public plaza, a professional school, waste-processing and agricultural-processing facilities, and a general store—to help Ducis make strategic decisions about future development.
“As a team, we were drawn to this project for its potential to affect the lives of the small community we were working with. Eventually, we came to realize that even if we were unable to get our project built, we had at least begun a dialogue with the local residents, empowering them to envision a future for their community that they might be able to realize themselves.” —Brent Suski
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