10 February 2017 in Entebbe, Uganda, Gino Strada e Renzo Pianotogether with President Museveni and Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng, laid the foundation stone of the new project Children's Surgery Centrewhich will be managed by Emergency: a centre of excellence in paediatric surgery to be built on Lake Victoria, 35 km from the capital Kampala.
Children's Surgery Centre
The need for a centre specialising in paediatric surgery arising in Central Africa has been highlighted by the Ministers of Health of the states that are part of theANME (African Network of Medical Excellence), the health network on the African continent created on the initiative of Emergency in 2009, with the aim of developing the health systems of member countries and bringing free and excellent care to places where there is still no access to it.
In Uganda the infant mortality under 5 years of age is of 13.8% (calculated on the total number of live births): ensuring free surgical care in such a context is a priority for both Uganda and its neighbouring countries. The Ugandan government has in fact decided to actively participate in the project, donating the plot of land where the Children's Surgery Centre.
Architecture of excellence for medicine of excellence
"When Gino Strada asked me to participate in this new challenge of Emergency, I didn't think twice, I immediately said yes! This hospital will be a model of medical excellence, environmental sustainability, energy independence and harmonious distribution of space" - stated Renzo Piano.
The facility, which will utilise the resources of the earth, water and sun, will be built on the shores of Lake Victoria, surrounded by nature and trees so that the vegetation acts as a horizon for the young patients, using trees as a metaphor for the healing process.
The hospital will have three operating theatres and 78 beds; it will also be a training centre for young doctors and nurses from Uganda and the surrounding area; it will be made of terra piséa traditional construction technique using unfired earth, guaranteeing thermal inertia that will keep the temperature and humidity inside the building constant. Special attention will be paid to environmental aspects: the centre will be powered by a system of approximately 2600 solar panels, made by Enel Green Power to meet the energy needs of the facility.
The project by Renzo Piano and TAMassociati
The mission of Renzo Piano's project for Emergency, an Italian NGO founded by Gino Strada in 1994, is therefore to create a hospital offering free, high quality care for the child population, on a par with the best western centres, while training local doctors and nurses, within a unique structure: a bio-climatic building built according to the local raw earth technique, but packed inside with state-of-the-art equipment.
The complex will consist of three parallel buildings with large flat roofs. The first, smaller and on one level, will be used for reception spaces; the others, on two levels, will rise on either side of the central courtyard and will have operating and resuscitation rooms in the basement. The central courtyard will be a garden with a large tree overlooked by the corridors and rooms, bordered to the west by the staff accommodation building.
The local technique known as pisé uses a mixture of earth, sand, gravel and water, pressed into wooden formworks with the help of mechanical hammers. In order to improve the mechanical and surface resistance characteristics of the mixture, extensive tests were carried out in Italy and new chemical thickeners were developed at the laboratories of Mapei S.p.a.
A key element of the project will be the large flat roofs consisting of wooden beams and steel tie-rods, which will protect the hospital from the weather and the sun, while at the same time allowing the housing of 5,000 square metres of photovoltaic panels offered by Enel Green Power for the production of 400 kW of clean energy.
More information at the following link: architetturaecosostenibile.it
