CIRT CHALLENGE: Community Health Clinic

CHALLENGE BRIEF

Create a meeting point for individuals, families, and visitors, in need of medical treatment, checkups, and therapy that will present a whole-life feeling and reduce or eliminate the fear, anxiety, and boredom often associated with visiting medical clinics.

The underlying goal of the design/construction proposal: find innovative ways to make something that is in general done with “dread” into something that has some enhancing aspects.

This challenge envisions an integrated clinic serving a local community, therefore should reflect “the style” of the area it will serve. Vital to this option is site selection and use or reuse of the available assets in the community (vs. new construction).

What elements could be incorporated that help facilitate the medical interaction, such as enhancing flow, comfort, and recovery? As well as address the needs of accompanying individuals regarding waiting times, diversions, and entertainment.

As ideas come together, upload sketches, floor plans, bubble diagrams, aerial maps, material studies or prototype models of your initial ideas.

The construction features of this facility must be the key to create a place where openness and diversity prevail -- where children, young people, and adults all feel at ease, whether they are the patient or just accompanying such a person. Based on the information you’ve collected, how might you accomplish this?

Take your preliminary ideas and form multiple small-scale design solutions. Create digital or physical models that help articulate your more developed ideas. Discuss them as a team and make final decisions.

Use of materials, building techniques, and approaches that emphasize sustainability, energy efficiency, and recyclable eco-friendly products as well as being equipped with the latest smart building and security technologies should be integral to the proposal.

The structure should be identified, and then any changes, rehab, or enhancements should be shown (before/after) to facilitate the option’s goals. All decisions should be explained and warranted based on the real world resources likely to be used for such a proposal. Provide a budget based on a price per square foot.

Thoroughly describe your design process, in writing and through visuals (e.g., sketches, renderings, stepped process, before and after, budgets, timelines, etc.) that meet the precise or exact nature of the challenge and/or the client goals/needs.

Think About:

Explain how your design approach is an appropriate, innovative solution that realistically responds to the precise design competition problem.

Explain how your design is different from other approaches or processes, if such is the case. How does your design address budgetary constraints, timeline issues or other challenges? Describe and/or demonstrate what you learned from this design competition.

The following design and construction aspects will be jury evaluation criteria, and should be explained where appropriate:

• site selection and its context (built and/or natural)
• constructability (structural challenges, materials, textures, colors, etc.)
• strategy for sustainability
• surrounding landscape/external spaces
• life and activities, in and around the building, including the qualities of enclosed spaces showing furniture, fittings and finishes

Upload your final images, text and renderings.