An Interactive Sustainable Infrastructure Design Model for Health Clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa lack the critical infrastructure to address basic medical needs of their inhabitants. The mission of this project is to develop a sustainable health center design model that can help address the needs of the people in its surrounding communities. Background research and interviews were conducted to develop a foundation of knowledge on the culture, region, common injuries, and such in order to determine the customer needs. Seven main subsystems of a clinic were investigated: green building design, energy, building materials, water treatment, waste management, rainwater collection system, and communication. These subsystems were researched and preliminary considerations and designs were developed. An adaptable software model was created that allows users to input specific criteria after which the model yields output recommendations for the clinic design. A proposed architectural rendering of a clinic was also developed to portray a possible rendering of the clinic. The use of this model in Sub-Saharan Africa may give NGOs a tool to interactively design more sustainable health clinic infrastructure.