A sustainable maternity hospital in Uganda, built using both local materials and skilled labor, designed by our friends at HKS Architects, opened earlier this year. The ~3,K SqFt Kachumbala Maternity Unit can accommodate as many as six births per day, and vastly improves upon existing aftercare facilities in he town of Kachumbala; additionally the ward itself replaces one built in the 1950’s, comprising only two rooms, and in which midwives processed paperwork in the same room as babies were delivered, but which nonetheless served a population of 160,000 people in an area without a reliable source of water or electricity. Only 40% of mothers-to-be could access the facility, home births are exceedingly difficult in the region, and infant mortality rates there are high. In order to suit the hot, dry climate of Kachumbala, HKS created an entirely passive and self-sufficient facility able to generate its own power, collect water and cool rooms without the use of HVAC by using photovoltaic panels. The structure’s bricks were made by hand on site with a press block machine developed at a Ugandan university.
