Regional hospitals in humid tropical climate - Guidelines for sustainable design

Abstract

Developing countries are facing numerous challenges in the process of providing adequate health care to often deprived and diminished social groups. Being a country made up of a mainland territory and five islands in Gulf of Guinea, almost entirely covered by tropical rainforest, with poor road infrastructure, Equatorial Guinea is a showcase of various obstructions in developing effective health care system. The paper explores guidelines for creation of model regional hospital, commissioned by Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, with the aim of achieving high level of replicability through minor program and site-specific adjustments. The demonstrated strategies are applied on a local hospital designed to provide all basic types of health services while retaining a high level of technical independence. The architectural concept was formulated aiming to maximize the use of natural ventilation, daylight and rainwater management, leaving the operation block, laboratory and intensive care unit practically the only parts of the structure that would need mechanical air conditioning. The potential and effectiveness of use of photovoltaic units in enhancing hospital's resilience through on-site energy production was explored. The structure was designed having in mind local climate, culture and customs, thus offering a possibility of strong integration with local community. The building technology was thought over to enable efficient and cost-effective construction and proper resilience for tropical rainforest environment. The result is a structure providing for contemporary, high quality medical service, interpreting local climatic and cultural contextual premises through modern architectural expression.