Construction is starting!

It is late Sunday evening here in Kolandoto and I have just finished the fourth revision of a budget for a construction project here at the hospital. I will tell you more about the construction, but first some background. 

This Healthy Hospital project has many parts to it. In addition to making our master theses on water and architecture at the hospital, we are also part of a larger collaborative development project between Kolandoto Hospital, and three NGOs in Sweden called Architects without Borders, Engineers without Borders and I Aid Africa. Within the set-up of this project there are also some funding available for implementing smaller interventions, which we call low-hanging-fruit projects, while we are on site here during these two months. 

About two weeks ago I made 8 architectural sketches for such low-hanging-fruit projects. The 8 sketches were presented to the officer in charge at the hospital as ideas for small projects that we could do. He took the sketches with him and discussed the ideas with staff at the hospital during a morning meeting to decide what the hospital would like to spend the available money on. One of the sketches were chosen, and in addition to that, the hospital suggested a different project as well. 

The door renovation sketch.

The first sketch that was chosen to be implemented was a renovation of the doors to the general theatre building. This is a small project idea that came to me already during my first visit here to Kolandoto last year in July. The doors are today not tightly fitted to the door frames, but instead there is an air gap that lets dust and air enter the theatre. In other words, dust can easily flow straight into an environment that need to be clean to perform safe surgeries! The door renovation sketch.

 A door with an obvious air gap leading straight into the minor theatre. 

So, last Monday me and the carpenters at the hospital went into town to get the materials for renovating three double doors.

Checking the wood quality before buying.

It went well, and now the first double door is up, although it is yet to be painted. 

A renovated door.

In addition to the door renovation project, the hospital also wished to look into constructing an extension to the current operating theatre. The hospital has a fully equipped theatre room for c-section, located next to the delivery room, so that it is easy to transport the mothers in labour to there if an emergency c-section is needed. 

The theatre for c-sections.

However, the theatre is apparently not in use at the moment. This is due to that the hospital feel they cannot guarantee the needed hygienic conditions for performing safe c-sections. What is missing is an entry room, a proper changing room, a scrub room, and a sluice room for rinsing the used equipment before taking it to the sterilization unit. 

After constructing this extension the pregnant mothers who are in delivery and need emergency c-sections will no longer have to be transported out of the building, and along an outdoor path, to go into the general operating theatre. This will of course increase the patient safety a lot!

The site for the extension.

The operating theatre is situated right inside that wall on the picture. The open area in the picture is where the extension will be. After the hospital had decided that they wanted to spend the money on this project I did a sketch of a possible layout of the extension. This was discussed during a meeting with staff in which I also physically showed the size of the rooms in order for the staff to assess if the rooms were big enough. 

So, the last week I have been working to get proper cost and time estimates from different people in preparation for the construction - the mason, the roofing guy, the carpenter, the plumber, the electrician and the painter. Tonight we arrived to a proper budget, after double checking a lot of things and having extra meetings with the workers to coordinate and discuss the best way to solve some issues concerning rainwater run off, roofing design, and wall construction techniques. 

The next thing that happens is that I will do some revision to the drawings, and make them clear to read and understand for the workers. And, tomorrow we are off to buy the material for the plumber and the mason! 

The maternity building.

Let the construction begin! 

/Annika