Brendan Harnett Receives Award for Mobile Health Clinic

Two Rensselaer architecture students have received awards in an international juried competition for their original design of a mobile HIV/ AIDS health clinic to be used in sub-Saharan Africa. The competition was sponsored by Architecture for Humanity to design a fully equipped, mobile medical unit and treatment center that could be used for testing, prevention and treatment of the disease, and to disseminate information and provide basic health care services.

The design submitted by Brendan Harnett of Goshen, CT and Michelle Myers of Londonderry, NH, fifth-year architecture students at Rensselaer, was named "Best Student Entry" and was awarded second place overall. They were the only student team and the only U.S. entrants to win in the competition. Their unit, called B.O.C.S.M.E.D.S (Basic Operable Container System for Medical Equipment Distribution and Supply), was selected from more than 522 teams representing 50 nations. An international jury of architects and medical professionals selected the winners.

It is estimated that three-quarters of the world's AIDS population lives in sub-Saharan Africa; most have no access to lifesaving drugs, testing facilities, or even basic preventative care. One of the major factors inhibiting medical professionals in Africa from treating the disease is the inability to access vast areas of the continent with adequately equipped facilities.

"We took a pragmatic design approach which broke down a mobile medical unit into its constituent parts and packaged them for easy transport," said Harnett, who also runs his own design business. "Our goal was to provide the healthcare professionals and volunteers with a scalable, adaptable, and highly mobile set of building blocks with which they can create temporary clinics specific to their requirements and the needs of the people they are treating."

The B.O.C.S.M.E.D.S units can be transported by train, truck, automobile, even cart or porters in some remote areas. The modular approach assures that the units are standardized and interchangeable, while providing the local operators as many options as possible for dealing with the diverse challenges involved with HIV/ AIDS treatment.

The units are composed of three basic but interchangeable pieces—power generation, water management, and shelter systems. Medical units range from simple medical supply containers to those designated to carry specific medical equipment. Others include portable examination rooms, washbasins, and cryopreservation units. Auxiliary equipment units help build and maintain the infrastructure, and living units can be supplied as amenities to volunteers and healthcare workers.

The B.O.C.S.M.E.D.S units are framed with lightweight aluminum angles to which both hardware and foamed aluminum infill panels are attached. The foamed aluminum panels are strong and lightweight, and extremely rigid and durable. In addition, they offer acoustical dampening properties, which will reduce the noise produced by some infrastructural units.

An exhibition of the winning entries and selected designs will run through January 31 at the Van Alen Institute, located at 30 West 22nd St. in New York City; the exhibit will then travel throughout the United States.

Money raised from submission fees, donations and additional fundraising activities will be used to build one or more prototypes of the winning concepts. Once developed, it is hoped that refined versions of these cost-effective and mobile designs can be built for Africa and, eventually, be easily replicated in other regions around the world.

Architecture for Humanity is a volunteer organization founded by 28-year-old designer Cameron Sinclair in 1999. A registered nonprofit organization, Architecture for Humanity encourages architects and designers to seek solutions to global social and humanitarian crises. With each project a new advisory board is assembled based on their individual areas of expertise. For its most recent project, the Mobile HIV/ AIDS Health Clinic for Africa, the nine-member board includes Pritzker-prize winning architect Frank Gehry, FAIA; Ambassador Richard Swett, FAIA; South African architect Rodney Harber; Kenyan architect Reuben Mutiso; IAVI Vice President Kate Bourne; Dr. Johannes van Dam of the Population Council; Dr. Sunanda Ray, Executive Director of SafAIDS based in Zimbabwe; and Dr. Michael Sweat of John Hopkins University. For more info visit <www.architectureforhumanity.org>.