|
C2C DESIGN FORUM AT THE MIT MUSEUM
February 20th, 2009
Containers to Clinics (C2C) hosted a public forum and design workshop at the MIT Museum. Featured speakers included: Elizabeth Sheehan, C2C Executive Director; Ted Kreuger, Associate Professor of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI); and Michael Oatman, Associate Professor of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).
In 2006, Professors Kreuger and Oatman co-taught an architecture studio class at RPI which resulted in the first strategic design ideas for the “RxBox” shipping container medical clinic. The RxBox model converted an 8’x20’ industrial shipping container into a medical clinic designed for health care in rural Haiti. Professors Kreuger and Oatman presented their design process to an assembled group of over 60 attendees. Attendees represented professionals from the fields of architecture, engineering, public health, and international development.
The objective of the C2C forum was to refine the container clinic model for a pilot implementation project in Central America at the end of 2009. C2C seeks to design a rural clinic compound, made from retrofitted shipping containers, which will provide basic health services, vaccinations and maternal and child health care to underserved, rural communities. Forum participants explored options for use-of-space, communications technology, ventilation, and power sources.
Key participants in the C2C design workshop included: Dr. Kristian Olsen, an internist and pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Program Leader at the CIMIT Global Health Initiative; Dr. Judith Waligunda, a physician at New England Baptist Hospital and volunteer with Healthcare Nepal; Peter Haas, Executive Director of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG); Michael McHugh, President of the Boston Chapter of Architects for Humanity; Gwyndaf Jones, Instructor at the MIT D-Lab; Mohammed Jafri, electrical engineer; and C2C Directors Keith Angell of IBM Global Services and Timothy Sheehan of L. Knife & Son, Inc.
|
