丨利比里亚丨MASS Design Group

New Redemption Hospital Caldwell

Project Data

Year: 2015

Status: In Progress

Size: 9,200 sq m

Location: Monrovia, Liberia, Africa

Partners: Liberia Ministry of Health, The World Bank, Clinton Health Access Initiative

Collaborators: Sherwood Design Engineers, Mazzetti, NOUS Engineering, Transsolar, AEP Consultants, Inc., Conspectus, Inc., GAD Studio

Focus areas: Conservation & Regeneration, Healthcare

Services: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Strategic Planning

Project Team: Bethel Abate, Caroline Alsup, Sierra Bainbridge, Luke Dale, Jessi Flynn, Emily Goldenberg, Edward Gould, Kordae Henry, Tom House, Tilly Lenartowicz, Natalia Lopez, John Maher, Emily McGowan, Jeremiah Oonyu, Stacy Passmore, Martin Pavlinic, Jim Peraino, Nadia Perlepe, Alan Ricks, David Saladik, Adam Saltzman, Eddison Smith

Full Team

Project Team: Bethel Abate, Caroline Alsup, Sierra Bainbridge, Luke Dale, Jessi Flynn, Emily Goldenberg, Edward Gould, Kordae Henry, Tom House, Tilly Lenartowicz, Natalia Lopez, John Maher, Emily McGowan, Jeremiah Oonyu, Stacy Passmore, Martin Pavlinic, Jim Peraino, Nadia Perlepe, Alan Ricks, David Saladik, Adam Saltzman, Eddison Smith

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New Redemption Hospital Caldwell, a 155-bed maternity and pediatric hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, leverages an innovative ventilation strategy and restorative landscaping to build community and ecosystem health.

Liberia’s civil war damaged 95% of the country’s health infrastructure, and trust in the remaining health system was further eroded during the 2015 Ebola outbreak. The former Redemption Hospital, originally a marketplace clinic, had grown haphazardly over time into a congested site with no room for expansion. It was unable to meet the maternal and pediatric care needs of such a young city, where two thirds of the population was under 30 years old.

At the same time, Caldwell, an area on the outskirts of Monrovia, was expanding rapidly; but the community lacked access to a hospital. To solve both these problems, the Ministry of Health decided to build a new maternal pediatric hospital in Caldwell—the capital’s first post-war investment in large scale public health infrastructure.

Building off our long-term partnership with the Ministry of Health on National Health Infrastructure Standards, MASS was invited to develop a masterplan and design for the New Redemption Hospital in Caldwell. Phase 1, currently under construction, is a two story, 155-bed facility encompassing comprehensive pediatric and maternity services. The project spotlights Liberia’s renewed drive to build an optimized health system that will not only avert future epidemics, but deliver comprehensive services to a growing population.

The hospital is designed for phased expansion around a series of courtyards. Anticipating the city’s rapid development, this inward-facing strategy aims to preserve pockets of green space that can be maintained and curated. Phase 1 centers around two of the courtyards, creating a safe, comfortable microclimate for families and children, as well as spaces for laboring mothers to walk. Phase 2 will include expanded inpatient as well as outpatient services.

The hospital is naturally ventilated by twelve solar chimneys, which minimize energy use, ensure effective infection control, and reduce operational costs.

In addition to cross ventilation from operable windows and breeze blocks, these large chimneys pull contaminated air out of the ward spaces using the simple stack ventilation principle of rising hot air, even when windows are closed. The solar chimneys also ensure patient comfort by cooling the wards with fresh air from the planted courtyards and the adjacent wetland.

These cross and stack ventilation strategies are engineered to cycle the air inside the hospital with clean air twelve times per hour. As an added infection control measure, ceiling fans pull air to the top of the wards, where it is decontaminated by Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) fixtures.

Wind patterns and care flows were also carefully considered. All of the hospital’s waiting spaces are located outside to reduce disease transmission, and wind analysis informs the placement of the hospital’s natural- and mechanically-ventilated spaces. The two courtyards capture prevailing winds from the southwest to naturally ventilate clinical and family areas. The surgical department, which had to be mechanically ventilated, is positioned as a bridge between the two southwestern facades to maximize its exposure to the prevailing winds.

Beyond the building, the site design demonstrates how restorative landscaping can support climate-resilient development.

The site selected for the hospital was a stagnant, overgrown wetland that fostered mosquito breeding. Rather than looking at the swamp as a problem to be filled in and drained, the design team recognized that restoring a healthy wetland would have positive health outcomes for not only patients but the surrounding community. It was important to think about the site as part of a larger ecological network and to build in harmony—not just preserving but enhancing existing systems.

The landscape is strategically divided into four zones: Campus, Site Edge, Wetland, and Infrastructure. Each component is critical to creating a healthy and resilient campus that supports the safety and well-being of patients, staff, and visitors. Within the wetland zone, the team designed water infiltration swales to improve water quality, forested wetland edges to attract predator birds and regulate erosion, and deeper pools to increase circulation and reduce mosquito habitats.

This project demonstrates how health facility masterplanning, even in limited resource settings, can set a model for climate resilient development by creating regenerative landscapes that restore ecosystems, increase biodiversity, sequester carbon and foster the health of people, animals and the environment.

European Healthcare Design Awards: Future Healthcare Design 2020