Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

Rwinkwavu Neonatal Intensive Care Unit / Mass Design Group

Architects: MASS Design Group
Location: Rwinkwavu, Rwanda
Interior Décor: Mass Design Group
Project Year: 2015
Photographer: Mass Design Group
Website: www.massdesigngroup.org

- 02 July 2015
- Edwin Seda
Health Centres , Sustainability , Communal Centres ,

The Rwinkwavu neonatal care unit by Mass design group seeks to answer the age old question. Can Architecture improve maternal and child health?

Rwinkwavu Neonatal Intensive Care Unit / Mass Design Group

The answer is simply not that straight forward and the project simply seeks to entrench within it an ideology of care beyond the pencil and the drawing board into the corridors of healthcare. It is a endeavour that Alan Ricks explains as "Simple construction methods and careful material selection".

Rwinkwavu Neonatal Intensive Care Unit / Mass Design Group

The facility is an extension wing of the Rwinkwavu Hospital, and will house operating rooms with necessary support spaces, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), Kangaroo care, and a NICU mothers’ ward.

Rwinkwavu Neonatal Intensive Care Unit / Mass Design Group

The design incorporates passive and mechanical strategies for infection control: outdoor circulation to reduce disease transmission in public spaces, and stack vents to ensure air flow in many of the interior wards. The major spaces are 100% day-lit, reducing the need for artificial lighting and thereby saving on operating costs.

Rwinkwavu Neonatal Intensive Care Unit / Mass Design Group

Simple construction methods and careful material selection has significantly reduced construction costs per square meter, as well as created the opportunity for construction training on site.

This project is in collaboration with Partners In Health and the Rwanda Ministry of Health.

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The Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence (BCCE) is the first comprehensive cancer center in East Africa. ...

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