A strategy for the design of precast structures to provvide health care to homeless people
Architecture can play a big role in improving our society; this thought has guided us during the long and twisty journey that led to the design of Articolo32. This project wanted to have have a fast and widespread impact in our cities by helping to solve an increasing problem: how to provide healt and social assisstence to those who are unable to access the canonical services. The design is divided in two parts: a strategy that can be applied in different contexts and an application of it.
National
Italy
Municipality of Trento
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Martina Last name: Fedrizzi Gender: Female Age: 24 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Italy Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: via del ri 2 Town: ville d'anaunia Postal code: 38019 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 331 240 8736 E-mail:martinafedrizzii@gmail.com
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Articolo32 is named after an article of the Italian constitution that underlines the universality of our health service. According to the Italians legislation basic health care should be provided for free from the State to everyone who is on the territory of Italy but, often, this is not happening. Nowadays the public health system is not taking care of homeless people as well as illegal immigrants; they are addressed to no-profit organization in which volunteer provide this kind of services often in spaces do not design for the purpose.
Articolo32 wants to take care of this issue from an architecture point of view: by being a small precast structure that can be placed everywhere in the city it will entering the urban voids where is necessary to provide this kind of services. It will be placed near soup kitchens, dormitories or areas of the city where the majority of population with economic problems is living with the aim of create a space designed specifically to provide health and social assistance to people in need and that it will be located where the users can access it easily.
Articolo32 wasn’t design for a particular context; before being a building is a strategy that following five steps can be applied everywhere. In fact by being a precast and modular building Articolo32 can be applied in different situations and in different places: the substructures that are part of it adapt themself to the to the context defining the shape of the building (according to the shape of the site) and the services that it provide (according to the flow of users).
Urban Void
Health care
Prefabrication
Modularity
People in need
The decision of using precast technology for the construction of Articolo32 is valid in several aspects: speed of installation on the building site, modularity of the building materials, cost-effectiveness in the construction process, but is focused on the sustainability of the building.
The different elements that create Articolo32 are, in fact, not just precast but also assembled using dry technologies. Considering that the specific user group is for its very nature mobile and therefore this group of population is variable in both location and number the selected technology will allow a fast transformation of the building as well also its demolition and reassembly in a new site using the same material. Canceling in this way any economic and building materials waste.
We are aware of the huge environmental impact of the construction sector and we with our design we wanted to think of a strategy that will allow to reduce the waste in the last link in the chain: the demolition.
Furthermore this strategy has a strong economic impact; according to the economic feasibility study a random application of Articolo32 built with reused materials is 70% cheaper than the same application built with new materials.
Articolo32 doesn’t want to be just a health care center that provide social and health assistance but the goal is to create a place where everyone can feeling comfortable and have pleasing experience.
To achieve the goal we followed two main strategy. The first one, that may seem trivial, is to think the building and the spaces in it in a multicultural way. The users of this kind of services have different geographical backgrounds and to make them feel comfortable when they deal with services such as those in the health or social sphere is fundamental that they can find easily and independently their way inside the building. Measures like placing multi-languages poster with information and indication seems simple but they completely change the user experience .
Secondly, we designed two typologies of spaces inside Articolo32: "spazi aperti" and "spazi chiusi". While the into the latter one are taking place the social and health assistance function that required a high degree of privacy the first one are intended as social spaces where the user can stay. Thanks to this spaces the the experience, often stressful of a medical examination in a foreign country, can turn into a pleasant moment.
As previously specified in articolo32 coexists two typologies of spaces: “spazi chiusi” e “spazi aperti”. Next to spaces design for the health facilities there are common space design for rest and socialize, in this way next to health care function the user can find space for social gatherings. Despite they are not directly connected to the health care sphere this second typology of spaces (spazi aperti) is fundamental.
In the first phase of the design we interviewed different people and association that nowadays provide this kind of service. All the people we spoke with claimed that the spaces that are part of this services, before being space design to provide health care, need to be “safe place” for the users. Here they have to find a welcoming place where everyone can be listened and find a shelter even if just for a couple hours.
In fact, in the daily life is not always easy for people who belong to this specific target group to find a shelter and someone to talk to.
Thanks to the spatial and technological choices the “spazi aperti” are the core of our design so Articolo32 become a real place for inclusion. It will provide health care services but at the same time it could be use by someone who doesn’t need health assistance and just wanted to join the social space it it. In this way it’ll become a gathering place for everyone that need a place where to spend its day.
Wars, climate changes and energetic crisis are having a strong impact in our society; in cities all around the world social inequality is increasing fast It’s our job to try to contain this phenomenon. Articolo32 insert itself in this problematic, it wants to be a new way to take care of people in need.
It's address to a small part of the population but by improving the wellbeing of this group the quality of life in the cities in which is located will improve.
Furthermore, Articolo32 wants to be more than just a health care center. Thanks to the social spaces that are included in the project it can host lecture and meeting. In fact it wants to be a social collector for the population who is living in the area in which the project is located. It can offer discussions and meeting about themes linked to health and social right as well as cultural differences.
In this way all the citizens can be involved and give their contribution in the usage of this space.
In Italy this kind of services are supposed to be ensure by the State, the right to access to the health care services is written in our constitution.
But what it’s happened most of the time is that the services are provide by different no-profit organization and the public health system help them both economically and by giving them supplies. Sometimes also the municipality where the services is located help the association by provide a space where they can deliver the health care services or by paying the utilities of the building.
In the development of articolo32 all these stakeholders will act together in the phase of the design.
The main stakeholder is the no-profit organization, that can be a small local organization as well as a worldwide one, that will be responsible of the project. It should provide studies that demonstrate the need of an application of Articolo32 as well as date about the quantity of people that will use the project; this is in fact the base for the design. After the construction of the building it will be responsible to the management of it.
The municipality where the project take place will collaborate with the project by helping find the ideal site for it, it has to be certain characteristics that the main stakeholder will underline.
The health care system as well as the public administration can provide economic help and specialized staff to collaborate in the management phase.
The main economic investment will be dispensed by the no-profit organization that will manage the project. One of the main goals of the design was to be economically sustainable and that’s why together with the technical design we develop an investment plan that last 10 years. It underlines the initial and operating costs of an application of Articolo32 for 10 years.
The design of Articolo32 was a long path in which the development of the architectural and technological project was only the last step.
In fact, before searching for technological and architectonical solution it was fundamental to understand how an health care center which address to people on the edge of society can work considering how the space should be but also which service provide and how to managing the service. This research led us to meet, sometimes face to face sometimes remotely, with various Italian Institutes that that provide services for homeless people and helping us discover a reality little known by us until then.
This first step on the develop of our concept involved various disciplines: we spoke with doctors that help us figure out which are the most common disease in this group of the population. People that deal with psychological support that explained us how to treat this patients in order to give them a pleasant experience, administrative staff that deal with the economic side of this kind of project and that helped us discover how no-profit organization work and how they finance themselves.
All this information that seems far from an architectural design were the foundations of Articolo32. Of Course the design developed themselves further thanks to a big research in the architectural and technologic field but this previous knowledge, that involve different fields, helped a lot the developed of the project.
In all the most important cities all around Europe you can find different health care facilities like the one that we want design, this are run by voluntary organizations or in some rare case by the state or local health authorities. Studying these preexisting facilities was the first step of our design; it helped us a lot to understand how these typologies of service work and what are the needs. Articolo32 is not innovative in its intended usage but in the way it provides the services.
First of all, as well described above, in this center will coexists two typologies of spaces. The alternation of social spaces and spaces used for providing health care is something totally new in the design of a health care center and will create a totally new experience for the user.
Furthermore, thanks to the precast technology Articolo32 will follow the flow of the user. It will be placed in areas of the city where the majority of population with economic problems is living (as well as where they usually spend their day, near station, soup kitchens, dormitories) in this way it can involving a large number of people.
Thanks to the modularity of the system Articolo32 will have the ability to adapt to the number of users, in addition the modular and precast technology will allow the demolition of the building and its reassembly in a new site using the same material.
Before being a building Articolo32 is a strategy that following 5 steps easily allows everyone to
design a small precast building that can be located in different part of the city.
The building that we design can be replicated in different situations following this strategy
1. ANALYSIS OF THE CONTEXT
choose a where to insert ARTICOLO32 by finding a situation where there is a lack of services addressed to this population group.
2. CHOOSING THE URBAN VOID
After found a context that need this kind of service it is necessary to find a site where to build Articolo32. It will be located in the emptiness of the urban framework of our cities (parking lots, parks, dismiss buildings) in part of the city where you can find high percentage of people in need. In this way it will be as close as possible to those who need these services.
3. SIZING THE OPEN SPACES ACCORDING TO USER FLOW
The spaces that we defined open are not surrounded by a defined boundary; they change according to the project. That’s why is needed to size them according to the flow of user.
4. CHOOSING THE NUMBER AND THE TYPOLOGY OF SERVICE THAT THIS APPLICATION OF ARTICOLO32 PROVIDE
Based on analysis of different health care centers that provide this kind of services we designed an abacus of spaces that a building of this typology could need. Not all the application of Articolo32 need all of them; the services to insert in the project are determined case by case based on the analysis of the context at point 1
5. DESIGN THE APPLICATION OF THE MODEL
To give ARTICOLO32 a two layer of flexibility; about the services and about the dimension we used the strategy box-in-the-box. The system is divided in two different subcomponents: platform and box linked between them through box-in-the-box strategy. The platform will define the shape of the building and host the "spazi aperti". Inside the platform, in a box-in-the-box strategy, the boxes will be placed: they will host the "spazi chiusi".
Wars, energetic crisis and other events are increasing the disparity inside our society. Stop this in a faster and sustainable way will be one of the biggest challenges of the coming years.
Articolo32, using small and small and targeted project, wants to deal with this problematic. Thanks to its flexibility and the small size of the design (also considering the economical side) Articolo32 wants be spread around all the Italian territory and create an actual network of structure which provide services for people in need.
This project, fast in its construction and with a low environmental impact can be an innovative solution for a problem that is expected to grow in our cities.
