Open Architecture Network

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Introduction

The Telemedicine Centre for Nyaya Health as presented in this proposal is founded on five principles;

1. Thoughtful space and appropriately designed form serve a greater public good
2. Pride and ownership are derived out of inclusion and contribution
3. Our environment must be understood to be part of us, not apart from us
4. Education and enrichment of an individual is intrinsic to and reliant on the education and enrichment of the community and
5. Technology can facilitate wellbeing.

In its approach to site, its use of materials, construction methods and technology, and in its regard for environmental concerns and cultural expression, the project strives to articulate these principles.

We have selected Site A for the location of this project. We have taken an attitude to site that the building should sit within and become part of the site in which it sits.
The site itself rises up from the river valley below and is invited into the project in the form of an exterior public plaza.
On its uphill face the project is markedly less public. Rather the project is protected from the hill above from landslides or flooding, in that we have wrapped the uphill side in a massive stone wall that in effect retains the hillside above.

By opening up the building form and public plaza to the river valley, the public component of the project is made visible to all approaching from below.
By grounding the project in the hill above in a long monolithic stone wall, the project becomes of and from the earth in which it sits.

The community is at the centre of all village life.
It is to the community at large that individuals turn to in remote regions for support and guidance, for solace and celebration.

The project uses the program and built form to wrap around a space that becomes open to the entire community for gathering. In effect, by remaining on one level and extending itself horizontally, the building becomes a semi enclosed campus, or community public plaza.
It is here that community learning, training, health, and education can be grounded.
The project becomes greater than the narrow definition of its program, it becomes a centre for community growth and expression.

Whether the people are Newar, Magar or other, folklore is an intrinsic cultural artifact. The acting out of stories in song or play is critical in the education and cohesion of the community.
Both the community hall and the public plaza invite this type of activity.
It is easy to imagine a large community group focused on the community hall as a stage in which entertainment, lessons, or music are acted out. We envision the plaza being animated by festivities surrounding some of the various festivals that are integral to the Nepalese culture, such as the Festival of Light (Tihar) or the Festival of Women (Teej).

Similarly, with sport and particularly soccer being such a national preoccupation, it is likely that children while waiting for their parents, might play in the public plaza.

Separation of men and women and privacy when required are deeply rooted cultural norms. However we believe that the most detrimental expression of these sex based values need to be replaced. Alternatives that protect women’s physical and spiritual wellbeing need to be developed.
In particular, acceptable alternatives to the Chhaupadi need to be developed and promoted.
In providing living, sleeping, and washing quarters that are separated, we respect the current division of the sexes.
However in that all interior walls are non load-bearing, they can easily be relocated. Therefore the extent of that separation may be reorganized at will. In addition, as the plan is currently organized, women can enter from one end of the corridor and men from another if required at certain times. The design does not prescribe this behavior, but it can accommodate it if required.

Craft and industry are celebrated in the project. This includes local jute agriculture and production, as well as local wood screen fabrication form integral components in the building envelope.
It is through the use of traditional and local technologies that the facility becomes rooted in and supportive of the community in which it sits.

The project’s raison d’etre is the use of technology in promoting sound public health.

Because of the prominence technology holds in the program, although not important in itself, we feel it deserves a place of prominence in the built form.

In this regard we have chosen to elevate the Wi-Fi tower to the status of project icon.
We have placed it as the entry marker to the facility. It anchors the public plaza and becomes the facility beacon.
All that want to gather, come to the tower.

We feel that the program as detailed in the brief is fulfilled with the following modifications;
We have included four washrooms instead of two.
We have provided for separate men’s and women’s in both the staff and public areas of the building.
We have included an additional control/storage room adjacent to our community hall as an optional administrative space for monitoring the publicly accessible computer lab and library we envisage in the community hall.
We have provided for a multipurpose space that is private adjacent to the telemedicine training room and counseling rooms. We feel the developing nature of the program warrants interpretation, flexibility, and space for growth at this stage of its development and of our understanding.

We have divided the program into three identifiable primary components. All of which are interrelated spatially in varying degrees.

The first component is the most public component – the Community hall. It is housed in its own form and is essentially a large multipurpose space.
This form fronts one narrow end of the exterior public plaza.
One is forced to walk beside it as one enters the semi-public telemedicine centre itself. One is admitted into the community hall through the telemedicine centre via the control room or directly from the public plaza.
The second component is the telemedicine centre itself. One enters this component from the main public entry into small space with bench and two washrooms. One then Proceeds down a single loaded corridor with a multipurpose room and two counseling rooms on either side of a teleconference training room. A small storage room is also provided for. At the end of this portion of the corridor is a door with controlled access.

The third component is the staff accommodation and the server room and admin office.
As these components were required to be separated with controlled access from the public, we have chosen to isolate this program simply with doors along the corridor rather than by placing them up on a second level. The private courtyard separating this program and the telemedicine component also reinforce this idea and serve as an area of private exterior space for the staff in what is otherwise an exposed plateau.

As flexibility is a criteria, the courtyard can at times be opened to the public plaza through large sliding doors or accessed form the telemedicine centre from a controlled door in the hallway.

Within this component, men and women have been given separate washrooms, and the primary living space can be divided by a curtain if required. The admin office acts as a control or reception point located at the end of the long corridor (or entry of the staff component)

All three components create the fourth program component, not called for in the design but created as a consequence of the arrangement of form. This fourth component of program is the public plaza. It is both a consequence of, and what grounds all the other components.

Together with the community hall and Telemedicine centre these three components combine to create the project’s public policy ambitions. The promise of community education, development and training, the implementation of GOBIFFF and CEDAW principles, support for implementation of integrated health programs using a combination of delivery mechanisms, and linkage of child health programs with maternal health programs at health facility and community levels.
It is the public plaza and community hall that has the potential to inspire joy and hope through community interaction and programming.

Transportation and access to site from larger centres is an issue. In addition we have ambitions to utilize local materials and local craft and technology, Therefore we have focused on three primary building materials in this project. They are;

1.Local stone.
Historically load bearing masonry walls are present throughout the region in many forms. These walls are often susceptible to regular earthquakes. In this scheme the primary load-bearing wall that runs the length of the project is made of gabions filled with local stone. In addition the plaza’s raised edge is retained with stone filled gabions. This technology is reliant on the gabion for lateral stability and much less susceptible to earthquake damage.
This technology is already in use on the site in retaining the road suggesting a local expertise and availability.
We assume this wall will be either dug into the ground as its own foundation or rest on a poured concrete footing or grade beam.
If monitored during construction for type and size of stone fill, the gabion can take on a contemporary quality that looks crisp and clean rather than simply utilitarian. It provides for interesting light filtration and for passive heating and cooling.

2.Local wood.
The point load wall is made up of wood columns, a series of wood beams where required, and a wooden decorative screen. All these elements can be crafted and fabricated from trees in the area if the milling technology exists in close proximity.
In addition, the trusses, pending an engineering review, could be fabricated out of local wood under supervision if steel is deemed unnecessary or too expensive.

3.Jute
Jute is a major export of Nepal. It has many advantages as a textile. It is strong, durable, color and light fast. It has good UV protection properties, it offers heat and sound insulation, it is a low thermal conductor, and it is carbon dioxide neutral and is bio-degradable.
We see its use throughout the project.
It will be used as drapery or blinds above internal walls that separate private programs from the hallway. Here it can be closed to protect against strong wind entering the clerestory level internally. It will also provide a degree of acoustic and visual separation throughout the project both at this level and in rooms that need flexible degrees of privacy. This will include drapery between the counseling and telemedicine training room and in the general living quarters when privacy is required between sexes. We also see its use throughout the project as floor covering were appropriate.

In addition to these primary materials, we have recommended the use of a small amount of clay tile on end walls in the internal courtyard and also plaster or clay on internal walls where privacy or complete control from the environment is a must, particularly in the sever room and where computer equipment is stored.

The roof is presently shown in corrugated metal decking but this requires further input regarding cost and availability.

As much as possible we see the project being constructed and crafted locally with simple yet monitored methods and means.

The project criteria call for the adaptability of the concept to different locations at various scales. Although we feel that a certain critical mass allows for the fullest expression of the civic ideas, the project is rooted in the idea of simple building components that can be assembled at virtually any scale.

Elements
The basic building plan and section begin with four building components;
a rock gabion 915mmx605mmx605mm), a column, a truss spanning between gabion and column, and a screen element mounted on the column face.

Modules
These elements are repeated in modules 1.2m (4 gabions in a row) and approximately 7m in span (depth) and covered in a roof deck. This is the basic programmable unit.
The module has a light screen wall that protects a hallway approximately 1.8m wide behind which is a space approximately 5.5m deep by 3.6m wide. This space can be further subdivided if required on the 915mm gabion module.

Extension
These modules can then be repeated adjacent to one another to accommodate any program desirable.
In the current plan, the total linear assembly is comprised of 68 gabions in a row, or 17 modules.
The telemedicine component is 6 of these modules,
the staff quarters and server room comprise 9 modules
and a private courtyard separating the two is 2 modules.

We have attempted to address a sustainable environmental agenda in a number of ways throughout the project.

Local components
By using local materials of rock for the gabion walls, jute if it is grown locally, and carved wooden screens presuming the wood is available locally, we are reducing the need for transport and therefore emissions. In this regard, if trusses are deemed to be acceptable if made from wood, then they too could be fabricated under engineering supervision at site.

Passive ventilation design
By tilting the mono pitch up toward the prevailing wind we invite exterior air into the building. The flow of air down the roof slope and out over the gabion walls creates a negative pressure which will draw air up into the structure from low down either through the courtyard wood screen or through the stone gabion wall.
This lower air will be cooler and help cool the building in hot weather.
In particular piped passageways through the gabions angled down toward the outside to keep moisture out will promote air intake in the server room and washrooms for room specific reasons.

Passive solar design
The continuous gabion wall provides a thermal mass along the south west face that should shed heat in the cool evenings to keep the building warm at night when temperatures are lowest. In the hottest summer months the extended low roof over these gabions should reduce the solar gain when he sun is highest.