Mityana, Uganda
South Carolina-based LS3P Associates are developing Uganda Women’s and Children’s Clinic in partnership with Go Design Inc., along with Ugandan and American doctors to offer pro-bono design services at the highest level, creating a new medical facility that builds upon the traditions of local tradesmen while elevating the design through applied research with adapted typologies.
This socially conscious design has been awarded a 2021 American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Rural Uganda faces many challenges with offering modern healthcare. Among those are a lack of doctors, lack of training, and lack of facilities, resulting in a high mortality rate for mothers and infants.
The new facility will offer lab spaces, maternity wards, patient rooms, emergency services, optometry, dental, doctor housing, and a physician training center.
By celebrating the local materials, employing local skilled trades, and drawing from traditional typologies, the design team created an architecture that is uniquely African and deeply rooted in place, community, and making.
Sited roughly at the equator just North of Lake Victoria, the area takes advantage of strong north/south prevailing winds from the lake while also receiving a significant amount of rain.
Located directly to the south is a school that furthers the idea that similar services should be offered in the same location to reduce the burden on large communal families.
The building concept is centered around community and campus. A chapel anchors the site at the center, and patient care buildings designed to be built in modular sections cascade down the site’s 25’ of elevation.
Ugandan families are very large and close knit, so the spaces between the buildings were prioritized and programmed to facilitate informal connection and surprise experiences throughout the campus.
The central ground plane is defined with pavers, plantings, trees, and cascading steps with seating zones.
Due to budget constraints and technological limitations in this area the buildings must function without an HVAC system, so the identity of the structures is tied directly to their passive performance.
Due to the year-round equatorial sun, all facades are protected with a large floating roof that keeps the heat gain from the spaces below.
Adapted solar chimneys which pass through the double roof system will passively pull air from breathable facades below and expel it above the roof.
Central dogtrot adaptations were added to buildings that cannot share cross ventilation due to potential contamination of adjacent spaces. Medical equipment will have battery back-up and energy offset by solar arrays on the roofs, resulting in a net-zero energy facility.
Building materials are largely renewable, low carbon, and native to Uganda. A dry stack brick made from excavated compressed dirt on the site will make up the majority of the wall systems.
However, to add diffuse light and airflow, the design team developed a layered screen system from mosquito mesh and bamboo sticks that will allow for infill and windows.
Doors, screens, and accents are all made from eucalyptus planks. By focusing on native materials, the construction of the campus will teach and expand the knowledge of local craftsmen so these sustainable building techniques can be used for future projects.
Project: Uganda Women’s and Children’s Clinic
Architects: LS3P Associates
Client: Go Design Inc.
