Mount Sinai Ambulatory Surgical Facility receives Fast Company Honorable Mention in Spaces, Places, and Cities Category
Building and supporting healthy, sustainable communities is more important now than ever. Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas honor designs that promote innovation for the good of society and the planet.
We wanted this project to provide a safe space for surgical procedures but we also intended to strengthen the community’s socioeconomic network. In construction, we worked with local businesses and labor to use traditional building methods: the steel structure was filled in with clay bricks and clad with kiln-fired tiles manufactured locally in Jinja, Uganda.
The surgical facility provides nurses and surgeons with training in quality surgical care. Twenty miles of underground cabling bring fiber optic service to the site, making possible the advantages of modern Telemedicine: real time advanced surgical consultation and operating room video conferencing.
The existing site did not have potable water, reliable electricity, or adequate sanitary facilities. We developed minimally invasive and sustainable systems to provide an essential infrastructure for clean energy, water and sanitation. Solar panels provide uninterrupted power, and well water and intermittently available town water is stored, filtered and sterilized, in gravity tanks on site.
