On behalf of UNICEF a design proposal was made for the Garowe General Hospital in Puntland with APC Architectural Pioneering Consultants. The design started from the most broad view possible in order to create a practical, user-oriented, sustainable and maintainable structure. The regional building culture was also taken into account, with a strong focus on traditional low-rise buildings with courtyards, which are used for all kinds of daily home activities, but also offer security and privacy.
For the proposed design, the idea was to merge a series of courtyards to create a central circulation corridor linked to a number of rectangular building blocks.
The simplicity of this organizational principle is suitable for the different functional units, and allows expansion in the future as the need for services grows.
The ground floor offers services that should be easily accessible such as the emergency department, medical imaging, operating theaters, polyclinical units,…. On the first floor, the patient rooms are accommodated, offering more privacy but also providing views of the surrounding landscape, as well as contact with other patients.
As a technical design engineering office, it is of the utmost importance to understand what purpose and for whom a building serves when determining the right energy solution. In hospitals, residential care centers and psychiatric institutions, the comfort, well-being and safety of the patient or resident is central. In addition, a cost-effective, energy-conscious, sustainable and efficient design of the technical installations was chosen. This means equipment that is sound and robust, but there must also be sufficient availability of local expertise, materials and ease of operation and after service maintenance.
