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ALLADA-TOFFO-ZE ZONE HOSPITAL
By : NIHONSEKKEI,INC.
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 15th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Public Building / Institutional Building : Silver Certification
Categories : Special Award / Architecture + Low Cost Design : Platinum Winner, Gold Certification
Categories : Special Award / Architecture + Colour : Gold Certification
A hospital improvement project in West Africa carried out through a grant-funded cooperative project.
Given the nature of the project, all construction needed to be low-tech and low-cost, and a simple plan that took into consideration the local climate and construction techniques was required.
As the hospital needed to respond to the large building-site environment where wilderness expands as far as the eye can see in the suburbs of the Republic of Benin, the aim was to create a hospital with a quiet appearance that fades into this vast scenery, employing a master plan of a mostly single-story building to minimize height.
Through considering local circumstances where electricity supply is unreliable, and by creating a floor plan with side corridors to ensure natural light and ventilation, a plan was created that would allow hospital functions to be unharmed by blackouts. At the same time, answers to hospital functions and spatial diversity were both realized through considering future additions and using a pavilion-style plan, where buildings, separated by function, are connected by exterior corridors.
A plan was established to allow local workers to carry out construction easily, with the building being constructed with the simple construction method of placing block walls on top of the RC framework, and for other parts of the building, parts such as the porous blocks made on site and the brise soleil cast on site were used.
A reasonable hospital plan was realized that matches the local level of operations by making specifications as simple and low-cost as possible, including individual wall-mounted units for all air conditioning and lighting with reduced power consumption.
Collaboration
