Moved to Care competition winners highlight the importance of safe healthcare for all

No matter what country you live in, everyone deserves access to safe and secure healthcare. Re-emphasizing this global issue is Building Trust International's Moved to Care competition, which sought feasible design solutions for a portable healthcare facility for high-demand regions in Southeast Asia.

Out of over 200 registered entrants, a U.S. multidisciplinary team consisting of Patrick Morgan, Jhanéa Williams and Simon Morgan won the Professional category. The jury also selected nine honorable mentions from around the world.

For the Student category, ‘REFLEX’ by Christopher Knitt (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA) was named the winner along with four honorable mentions.

Check out the winning entries below.

Professional category winner:  Patrick Morgan M-Arch, Simon Morgan MPH and Jhanéa Williams M-Arch (USA)

Project summary: "In a region with an average of less than 1 physician per 4,000 individuals, the need for quality and broad ranging care is immense. While surgical issues such as infant deaths, life threatening injuries, and cancer treatment are a small portion of the clinic's medical burden, they are a large time burden for providers and an even more significant spatial burden as surgical equipment is cumbersome."

"For these reasons, a full one third of clinical space has been dedicated to surgical intervention. The remaining two-thirds of space is designed to provide preventative, and ongoing, monitoring and treatment. The population requiring these interventions makes up the majority of our clinical burden, but requires a much smaller clinical space for appropriate intervention. In fact, the majority of interventions can take place outside of the clinical space, where a full 130 of the 150 total square meters are dedicated to preventative medicine, nutritional education, and healthy lifestyle lessons."

"By integrating clinical space into community space, the barrier to access can be removed and healthcare can be delivered safely, effectively, and can generate dramatic improvements on health outcomes for the rural South East Asian population."

"The prefabricated core opens up to reveal circulation space and bold colours which are used to differentiate areas. Local building skills are then encouraged to create shading and rain protection elements for waiting areas."

For the full project description, click here.

Student category winner: "REFLEX" by Christopher Knitt (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA)

Project summary: "The exterior portion of REFLEX consists of a system of wooden frames that are inserted into steel tracks."

"The people of the community then clad the exterior using local materials and methods, creating a unit that caters to directly to the culture it arrives in, encouraging users to feel comfortable and proud."

"In each rendering, you will see elements that reflect local building methods. Once clad and subsequently relocated, the panels can either retain their cladding and stored in the container for shipping, or new panels can easily be fashioned with lumber at the next site."

For the full project description, click here.

Images courtesy of Moved to Care competition.

To see the Honorable Mentions in each category, click here.