HOLISTIC CARE
For over 60 years, Bethesda Medical Center has provided Haitians with critical services, treating HIV and TB and delivering pre- and post-natal care and family medicine. But in recent years, it has outgrown its campus. That’s when the Bethesda team invited Phoenix, Arizona, design studio August Green to meet with them on the ground to envision a new site — to serve both the city centre of Cap-haïtien and the rural areas surrounding it — as well as a new future for the medical institution.
Together, they are planning a completely self-sustaining and off-grid place of safety — even in times of emergency. This would be no easy feat: The clay terrain of the site, in a zone prone to earthquakes and hurricanes, rests only two metres above the water table. To address this challenge, the designers opted to design single-storey buildings with broad footprints and no overhead concrete slabs.
Instead, the numerous facilities (which include five clinic buildings, a guesthouse, a director’s house and a reception building) are composed of earth blocks made on site — with the help of the local community — and supported by a steel basket weave that threads through them. The structures are topped with a multi-layer roof lined with bamboo and fortified by steel trusses. All areas except for the lab, X-ray room and pharmacy are to be naturally ventilated through a solar chimney system equipped with skylights and whirlybirds; below the skylights, translucent polycarbonate panels reflect and diffuse daylight throughout the interiors.
The ambitious plan also extends to the spaces between the buildings. Since getting to the facility and waiting to see doctors — not to mention visit family members — is often an all-day event, the designers have made the courtyards throughout the campus a thriving connective tissue. An outdoor kitchen area with a well and an abundance of edible plantings — breadfruit, plantains, avocados, almonds and morangas — is intended to provide sustenance for both patients and the community. In this way, the landscape works to feed, shade and shelter the site, while the buildings provide life-saving care.
Project: Bethesda Medical Center
Location: Cap-haïtien, Haiti
Firm: August Green, Phoenix, U.S.
Team: Kyle Mertensmeyer with Matthew Shields, Zoia Pushkova and Yingnan Ting (August Green); Ryan Eley (RWE Builds); Kos Komorowski, Ana Kuznietsova and Yurii Muzyka (Kaleidoskope)
Rendering: Kaleidoskope
“Truly a humble and thoughtful design that serves the population that needs it the most.” — Tao Zhang
If asked to design a wayfinding system for a rail-focused construction company, turning to railway design itself for inspiration might at first seem a little on the nose. But step into the Totetsu Training Institute outside Tokyo and the apparent simplicity of Motive Inc.’s graphic framework belies its cleverness.
With a strikingly straightforward approach, the team demarcated circulation routes on the floor using parallel lines that mimic a train track motif, weaving and intersecting to imbue the space with a dynamic sense of movement. Upstairs, it drew on the characteristic colour-coding of rail lines to inform the spatial organization and signage. Each room is assigned a hue that matches its corresponding key card, which is denoted with a portion of the train track. When placed side by side, the cards can be assembled to form a multitude of routes.
The railway references don’t end there. To incorporate the materiality of train tracks, steel rail scraps were utilized throughout, etched with the company name at the facility’s entrance and integrated within the staircases. Though the resulting space is visually stunning, the project’s success hinges on its ability to create an environment that is both user-friendly and easy to navigate while staying true to the brand’s identity — and, in turn, fostering a sense of pride in trainees.
“From the pathways created to the flow and fluidity of the signage, as well as the materiality link, this project represents the brand and becomes a key part of its identity.” — Róisín Lafferty