A mobile clinic designed to respond the urgent reality of healthcare
Upcircle went to check the exhibition “Living with Buildings” at the Wellcome Collection. It approaches architecture and health and how spaces became an important tool of health improvement in the hospitals and public buildings.
The highlight was the installation about the Global Clinic, a prototype of a temporary structure designed by architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, and engineers BuroHappold and ChapmanBDSP, to provide healthcare in emergency situations. Doctors working in remote locations often deliver emergency services from temporary structures – these need to be flexible yet robust, easy to transport and build, and able to adapt to different climates.
This installation includes Made Well, which explores how flat-pack technology can respond to the needs of refugees.
“The Global Clinic is constructed from pieces of plywood cut by a CNC (computer numerical control) machine. These pieces then connect to form the basic structure, and the shape and size can be adapted according to the needs of Doctors of the World.”
“We wanted to rethink temporary clinics, to give doctors a clean environment to work in,” “Rather than fabricating and exporting a finished product, the design data [plans] can be sent around the world and the cutting can happen in the nearest available place. Communities can then be involved in the assembly and given ownership of the space,” said Ivan Harbour, architect and senior partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour.
Global Clinic demonstrates that architecture can respond to a worldwide issue in health today and adapt in different contexts and sociocultural realities.
Doctors of the World are currently fundraising to deploy the clinic in a location where their care is needed.
For more information about the exhibition and opening times, access Wellcome Collection.
Admission is free and the installation is open to visit until 22 April 2019. Sources: Wellcome Collection; Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.