Photos reveal new children’s hospital by Renzo Piano under construction in Uganda
Dezeen
2019.04.05
Italian architect Renzo Piano is building a major new health facility, the Centre of Excellence in Paediatric Surgery, in Uganda.
Italian architect Renzo Piano is building a major new health facility, the Centre of Excellence in Paediatric Surgery, in Uganda.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop has unveiled photographs of the new children’s hospital, which is currently under construction in Entebbe, on the banks of Lake Victoria.
The project, set to be the studio’s first in Africa, is a collaboration with fellow Italian studio TAMassociati, for Emergency, the Italian non-profit organisation led by Gino Strada.
Once complete, it will provide free healthcare for Ugandan patients and surgery for children from across Africa. It will also double as a training centre for young doctors and nurses.
“When Gino Strada asked me to take part in Emergency’s new challenge, I didn’t think twice. I said yes straight away!” said Renzo Piano.
“This hospital will be a model of medical excellence, environmental sustainability, energy, independence and harmony of space. We want to use the resources of the earth, water and sun – modernity’s greatest, truest achievements.”
“The hospital will be built on the banks of Lake Victoria and surrounded by nature and trees,” he added. “The vegetation will be the horizon for the hospital’s smallest guests, the trees a metaphor for the recovery process.“
The building takes the form of four different-sized blocks, which slot into the sloping landscape and are connected by sheltered walkways.
The thick walls are being constructed from rammed earth, chosen because it is readily available in the area, and because it could be constructed by local builders, without any need for specialist construction workers.
With high thermal mass properties, the use of rammed earth will also help to keep temperature and humidity constant inside the hospital.
“The challenge of this new project of Emergency NGO is to combine the practical requirements of a paediatric surgery hospital in Africa with the desire to create a model piece of architecture: rational, tangible, modern, beautiful, but firmly linked to tradition,” explained Piano’s studio.
The team hope the model can become a model, promoting better standards of healthcare across Uganda.
“Millions of children die every year simply because they have no access to medical treatment,” said Gino Strada.
“A shortage of resources? Indifference towards the suffering of others? Governments failing to take responsibility? Whatever the reason may be, the question remains the same: should we continue to tolerate this scandal, or should we make every possible effort to save or improve the lives of millions of fellow human beings?“
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