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Alternative healthcare facilities: architects mobilize to fight COVID-19
© Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti
As healthcare infrastructure is overwhelming and hospitals around the world are reaching their capabilities, alternative possibilities emerge. In response to bed shortages and overcrowded facilities, architects around the world are taking action in the ongoing fight against the coronavirus. Focusing their knowledge to find fast and efficient design solutions that can be implemented anywhere, they propose flexible, quickly assembled, mobile and simple structures. With a tight schedule, some projects are already implemented and in service, while others remain on a conceptual level, waiting to be adopted.
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CURE. Image © Max Tomasinelli
Although overall, planning guidelines for new hospitals dictate that 15-20% of spaces should be dedicated to communicable diseases, most facilities worldwide could not have anticipated a pandemic of this scale. As a result, Carlo Ratti has converted shipping containers into intensive care units, consisting of fast-mounting, easy-to-move and safe units. CURA, a secure isolation room, containing all the necessary medical equipment, has its first prototype ready. In the Philippines, the WTA established 60 emergency quarantine facilities, reusing one of its wards in a short-term relief space. Temporary structures made of wood and plastic can be replicated anywhere to increase the capacity of hospitals. Other more conceptual approaches include mobile units designed by startup JUPE HEALTH, rapidly deployed rest and recovery units, as well as mobile ICUs. At “1/30 the cost of a hospital room,” they’re designed and built for doctors by doctors, and can be shipped anywhere.
Courtesy of WTA
On the other hand, in New York, officials, who anticipate the need for 10 times the existing rooms, seek to generate useful spaces for patients by altering the capacity of existing structures or converting buildings with a different program, such as office spaces, stadiums, convention centers, etc., which already have the required basic amenities, such as HVAC and adequate treatment infrastructure. Additionally, to help identify suitable alternative sites for patient care, the American Institute of Architects has released a new design guide from its COVID-19 Task Force, a quick assessment to recognize compatible buildings that can support care operations. to the patient. In line with this logic, Opposite Office has proposed to transform the New Berlin airport, under construction since 2006, into a “superhospital” for patients with coronavirus. The adaptive reuse alternative can be implemented at any airport in the world, since traffic is currently limited and restricted.
Courtesy of JUPE Health
In addition, specialized architecture companies such as MASS published guidelines to limit contagion in the Tent Tent Clinics COVID-19. In founding his research on past epidemics, MASS explains that the risk of cross contamination is high when people are in tight places. To limit disease transmission, 3 main ideas should be adopted: limit the spread of drops between people, designing distances between people of 6 ‘or more to avoid direct contact with respiratory drops; mitigate contagion through surfaces, identifying, cleaning and disinfecting high contact surfaces; and control of airborne infections by preventing, diluting, and removing contaminated air.
Courtesy of MASS
To highlight different design approaches, inspire creative solutions and encourage quick responses, we have brought together 10 architectural platform initiatives that address current issues, each presenting a novelty and introducing a different concept. A space protocol, an urban quarantine camp, emergency medical shelters, fast-building hospitals made from recycled shipping containers and inflatable fabrics, low-cost mobile facilities, hospital ships, and personal protective spaces for doctors, among others.
Adapt: a spatial protocol in case of emergencies
50SuperReal / IE School of Architecture and Design Professor
ADAPT. Image courtesy of 50SuperReal
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Through adaptability, prefabrication, optimization, speed, recycling and the upstream cycle, as well as “adaptability”, Adapta it is a spatial protocol based on resilience, preparation and collaboration in advance. Being a globally adaptable design that can be implemented in a crisis, it creates a spatial solution that can be applied anywhere in the world and in a matter of seconds, reducing the overhead of the human design process to almost zero. Assuming the pre-existing modular units, which are ideal for emergency construction, 50SuperReal designed a solution where all additional building materials are sized to fit in the modular unit, in case the building needs to be packed and moved to a new site.
MOBILE PPS (personal protection space) for doctors
Plastic Fantastique
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By fighting COVID-19, doctors can be exposed to infection when masks and protective suits are missing. The Mobile PPS is a space where doctors can treat patients in a protected space. It has a constant overpressure, which means that air flows only out of the space, without allowing the virus to enter. The air supply is guaranteed by a fan located outside or in an additional decontaminated space.
KAKSH
AGX ARCHITECTS
KAKSH. Image courtesy of AGX ARCHITECTS
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As India and the world face a shortage of healthcare infrastructure, AGX ARCHITECTS proposes an effective solution that can be manufactured and deployed as soon as possible and has the potential to scale up. In fact, they created a structure that can act as a hospital quarantine unit or quarantine shelter for an individual. Design effectiveness is lower cost, requires fewer skills, minimal on-site operations, readily available materials, efficient logistics, and minimal installation time. A component system is developed to increase and decrease the size of the unit as needed.
Modular Emergency Hospital
MMW Architects
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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, MMW Architects has designed an efficient, flexible, and affordable modular hospital to increase intensive care capacity nationally and internationally. The hospital’s construction system is based on the use of recycled shipping containers and inflatable fabrics, assembled in an innovative way to meet the stringent requirements of air pollution in hospitals. The system can accommodate isolators and larger patient rooms based on needs and circumstances. It is intended to be a contingency hospital that will function as a satellite hospital physically close to a larger hospital.
Hospital ships
Weston Williamson + Partners
Hospital ships. Image courtesy of Weston Williamson
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Trying to encourage a global response, Weston Williamson proposes hospital ships, as the container module is ideal for an intensive care bed and medical equipment. With 3,500 containers per vessel, patients would only remain on the ship in circumstances where there is no place to deploy them. Containers are adapted by removing one of the steel doors and nailing a perspex panel in place. The perspex also has a hit and miss panel for natural ventilation and a built-in air conditioning unit.
Mobile Hospital
VHL.Architecture
MOBILE HOSPITAL. Image courtesy of VHL.Architecture
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VHL.Architecture teamed up with Da Nang University of Architecture to design a Mobile Hospital model capable of solving the current bed shortage while ensuring the full functions and facilities of a medical examination and treatment center. Quickly built for mass production at the factory, with low installation costs, the project takes the 6-meter basic container and breaks it into 3 parts. The frame is a 30mm x 60mm iron box, while the floor is made of lightweight concrete panels with standard dimensions. The medical kit will be placed in the red box or under the floor to save space.
Rescue center
HAHA Architects Group
Field Rescue Center. Image courtesy of HAHA Architects Group
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The Field Rescue Center (FRC) project was created as a concept of a mobile diagnosis and treatment center. Its purpose is to be used in times of crisis such as epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters, refugee crises or humanitarian missions when it is crucial to quickly provide medical aid to large numbers of people. The Field Rescue Center can fulfill the tasks of a fully functional temporary hospital. Consisting of TEU FRC containers it is a mobile structure, easy to transport. Thanks to the moving parts and the hydraulic system, the assembly is practically autonomous. The modular structure of the installation allows it to be mounted in any configuration, depending on the characteristics of the critical situation and the number of people seeking medical help.
CNC medical emergency module
KOTKO
CNC-MEDICAL EMERGENCY MODULE. Image courtesy of KOTKO
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The CNC-MEM or computer numerical control used to create a medical emergency module responds to the current crisis of COVID-19, which inspires a design that can be conceptualized and polished, to be open source. Produced with a total of 6 sheets of 1.22cm x 2.44cm plywood, with few other materials, the intervention can be cut in less than a day and assembled in less than 10 minutes. Each module can accommodate 1 patient. Its main objective is to grow, creating a mutable configuration according to the available landscape. The project aims to create a social architecture that provides options for immediate needs.
Foldable emergency shelter
Gonzalo Guzman
Folding Emergency Shelter. Image courtesy of Gonzalo D. Guzman
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The main idea was to design a very simple shelter that could be easily transported and built. The dimension would allow us to stack many modules and transport them on any truck. Each module consists of a rigid structure of collapsible panels and a fabric covering for additional protection against wind and water. This module can be adapted to any situation where an emergency shelter is needed and the rigid panels can be made of any material depending on availability. The simplicity of the shape is in response to effectiveness and economy.
CAMP-15: a sustainable urban park
INFEKT
An Econo-Sustainable Urban Quarantine Park. Image courtesy of INFEKT
To overcome the economic and social catastrophe of the coronavirus outbreak; Sustainable quarantine systems must adapt to any place that is struggling with the virus and still needs to maintain its residents. CAMP-15 is a way of living in quarantine, an area adapted from a park to the isolation of residents. Park facilities such as showrooms, galleries, restaurants, warehouses, and many open-door areas are transformed into bedrooms, offices, and leisure areas for mild, symptom-free patients. Under 24h observation by doctors; This area is where any COVID-19 positive patient can go and live for 15 days until the end of the quarantine period.
We invite you to review ArchDaily’s coverage of COVID-19, read our tips and articles on home work productivity, and learn about technical recommendations for healthy design for your future projects. Also remember to check out the latest tips and information on COVID-19 on the World Health Organization (WHO) website.
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