Dave Hampton

Advisor, Resilience

With 20+ years’ experience in resilience, recovery, and risk management in high-density urban built environments with clients that have included UN Habitat, UN-IOM, Build Change, Haven International, and Architectes de l’Urgence, Dave Hampton combines architectural, interpersonal, real estate development and financial expertise to deliver impact in locations as challenging and complex as Haiti, Chicago, and Cuba.At AHI he connects developed-world capacity to authentic neighborhood-up initiatives that enable groups of people to take charge of their own community’s resilience, recovery, and revitalization.

Dave’s baptism of fire in resilience came in post-earthquake Port-au-Prince, where on behalf of Architecture for Humanity and then J/P Haitian Relief Organization, he managed a complex portfolio of urgent stabilization and recovery projects aiding the voluntary relocation of 55,000 displaced people.As part of this, he led an interdisciplinary team of architects, engineers, planners, and construction specialists on ‘Haiti Helping People Home’.This community-based program in multi-hazard (earthquake, hurricane, urban ravine flash flooding) disaster risk management and recovery delivered safe and permanent homes for 97 families, plus schools, community centers, and health clinics serving over 800 people weekly.Expanding on this work, Dave engaged an extensive network of disaster recovery stakeholders and conceived and secured $1.1 million from the German development agency GIZ to fund a flood hazard mitigation project with the World Bank Natural Hazards Assessment Team to build ravine-stabilizing retaining walls to save lives, protect property, and strengthen the local community.

After fifteen years in the field, Dave returned to academia for a Harvard Graduate School of Design Masters of Design Studies in Risk and Resilience.Since then he has turned desire for change into structured action though writing for multiple publications, such as his Lessons from the California Fires: Climate Change Impacts and Proactive Planning for Planetizen; and speaking at dozens of venues including Habitat III in Quito.Talks have included “Post-Maria Puerto Rico” and “Community Resilience: The Role of Design” for the Boston Society of Architects, whose Committee on Resilient Environments – which he co-chairs – focuses on climate adaptation and coastal resilience.Because housing is the infrastructure of people, housing ecosystem ramifications range from the physical and tactile (elevating buildings, wet/dry floodproofing, passive survivability) to the intangible essentials of financial and policy frameworks (transfer of development rights, managed retreat, housing as critical infrastructure).

A FEMA Emergency Response Official Contractor, Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program Certified Provider, Passive House Certified Consultant, and LEED AP, he holds a Bachelor’s in Architecture from Virginia Tech, is fluent in English and Spanish, converses in Haitian Creole, and is increasingly able to understand Bostonian.


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