UK architect Adjaye Associates has won a contract to create a blueprint for over 100 hospitals across Ghana combining prefabrication and traditional symbolism, and adaptable to rural and urban locations.
According to the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, sites have been secured for 88 of 101 district hospitals, each to cost some $17m with a campus covering 15 acres.
Called ‘Agenda 111’, the project includes 101 district hospitals, ten regional hospitals and the renovation of Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital.
The hospitals are designed to be easy for wayfinding, guiding visitors through a canopied entrance to the heart of the buildings.
Each has a central garden and multiple nature-filled public spaces.
Two types of roofs are used, a butterfly roof for patient wards, allowing in natural light and air and a gable roof for protecting a surgical environment.
Each single-story hospital will contain primary facilities such as an A&E, a surgical ward, paediatric ward, maternity ward, physiotherapy space and a chemist.
Separate buildings will provide homes for doctors, family spaces, mortuaries, kitchens and waiting pavilions.
The hospitals’ blueprint incorporates centuries-old Ghanaian Adinkra symbols and the designs are inspired by the Denkyem, a famous species of tiny crocodiles in Kenya.
Adjaye Associates comments in a press release: “By approaching the hospital as more than just a place for the provision of medical services, the design scheme aims to unlock the potential of this ambitious initiative by repositioning the hospital as a piece of community infrastructure that embodies sustainability, efficiency, and generously provides green spaces to facilitate wellness and healing.”
Ghana’s Ministry of Health estimates that the first hospitals will be finished within the next year.
Images courtesy of Adjaye Associates
