Case Study

Temporary Housing for Families of Hospital & Medical Center Patients

The American Cancer Society Hope Lodge

The American Cancer Society Hope Lodge program provides a free home away from home for cancer
patients and their caregivers. More than just a roof over their heads, it’s a nurturing community that
helps patients access the care they need. Each Hope Lodge community offers a supportive, homelike
environment where guests can share a meal, join in the evening’s activities, or unwind in their own
private room. Patients staying at a Hope Lodge must be in active cancer treatment, and permanently
reside more than 40 miles or one hour away from their cancer treatment center. Each patient must be
accompanied by a caregiver.

The American Cancer Society Hope Lodge in Rochester, which opened in 1980, offers 30 guest rooms
located near treatment centers in the area.

Each Hope Lodge community offers:

 A supportive environment for patients in cancer

treatment and their caregivers
 Close proximity to local cancer treatment centers
 Private guest rooms and bathrooms
 Fully equipped community kitchens for food storage
and preparation
 Gathering areas/great rooms and community dining
rooms
 Free laundry rooms stocked with supplies
 Outdoor, reflection, or meditation spaces
 A library and/or resource room
 TVs and computer access
 Dedicated volunteers helping to ensure a comfortable
stay for our guests and frequently cook/provide meals
 Committed staff members providing a nurturing and
safe environment for guests
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Ronald McDonald Houses in Golisano Children’s Hospital

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Rochester provides affordable lodging and emotional support for
any and all families who need to be near their children while they are receiving health care in the
Rochester NY area.

This 7-bedroom Ronald McDonald House within Golisano Children's Hospital gives parents a welcoming
place to rest and recover, while being just minutes away from their child. In addition to warm and
homey bedrooms, guests have access to a private bathroom and shower, a large, fully equipped
kitchen, living room, laundry room, and other amenities. Perhaps most importantly, families find the
support and comfort of others who share the experience of having a seriously ill child. A referral from a
healthcare provider is required.
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Housing for Doctors & Nurses

Siloam Doctor’s Residence

The 350 Bed Siloam Hospital is situated in Siloam, Nzhelele, Limpopo Province. For many decades, the
hospital served the local population with services ranging from Obstetrics to specialist Vascular Surgery.
Much of the present infrastructure is at the end its planned lifespan and in a state to undergo
reconstruction. Initial stages of reconstruction entailed the relocation of existing staff residences to create
a green field for the redevelopment of a new clinical hospital building.

The new staff housing development responds to the need to maximize land use and densification. Four
typologies are explored and developed to house the following groups: General Practice Doctors,
Specialist and Scarce Skill Medical Professionals, Post Basic Students and lastly, Medical Students. General
Practice Doctors are housed in 15 standalone family units, then the Scarce Skills Professionals in 40
bachelor units and both Post Basic and general students housed in 62 single and double room
apartments. Materiality and place-making became fundamental key drivers on the project. The design
concept considers the natural setting and magnificence of the Soutpansberg Mountain backdrop.
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The Malamulo Housing Project

Location: Thoyolo District, Malawi

BACKGROUND (Research)

Jason Blachard, CEO of the non-profit Malamulo Hospital, administrated the entire clinic as well as
planning for further growth of the hospital. Serving roughly 130,000 native Malawian patients with only
four trained physicians, the dyer need for more doctors is obvious. The hospital operates numerous mobile
health care sites for out-patient services to serve one of the poorest districts in Africa, the Thoyolo District.

Doctor Inequality:

Much of the doctor disparity is due to low rates of doctor retention for hospitals and an inability to recruit
doctors to the clinics. The primary factor is either poor quality or even non-existent housing at the hospitals
for the staff. To counteract this inequality, providing adequate housing for physicians will begin to set the
stage for nearer equilibrium.

1 trained doctor in Malawi for every 33,000 patients

Malawian nurses living in government Malawian medical staff choosing a job with provided
subsidized housing units housing vs without housing.

Primarily native Malawian doctors and their families for semi-permanent stays

Target User Group: Native Malawian Medical Staff

Although numerous expatriate work at the Malamulo Hospital, the primary user of the proposed units are
educated and trained native Malawians. Additionally, their families will live in the houses for extended
periods of time; up to five years. This requires user focused spaces that perform efficiently at all times of
day and year.
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Malawian Vernacular

Catering to the typical Matawian vernacular for program distribution, the house organizes itself
relationships. With a covered entry porch, or khonde, the primary entry is shaded from the intense heat
and provides a covered area of reprieve.

Understanding the necessity for natural ventilation and heat discernment, the kitchen lies adjacent to an
exterior wall with an outdoor space to open unto. Private outdoor spaces and gardens are essential for
all Malawian families as well.

Typical House form Typical Malawian House form

PROPOSED PROGRAM PATRI

Malawian Vernacular: Deconstructing Housing

Types

Maintaining use of affordable and simple

Corrugated
building materials. Malawian houses employ
metal roof
varying construction methods according to skill.
Typical Malawian floor material Simple load bearing compressed bricks walls
support the rough cut gum pole roof beams
Gum pole
above. Utilizing standard materials, the structural
rafters
members are spaced accordingly to reduce or
eliminate cutting.

Malawian Vernacular: Typical Construction

Indoor/Outdoor Materials
cooking area Typical Malawian wall material
Determined by financial capability, the
construction materials used for houses are
generally similar across Malawi, but slightly shift
Soil Stabilized according to financial status. Most commonly,
brick walls all walls are built from soil compressed brick with
a rough gum pole roof structure above. The roof
Typical Malawian House
Typical Malawian roof material
is finished with thatch primarily, but for Malamulo
form with khonde
it is to be corrugated metal.
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PROPOSAL
Actual

Malamulo Doctors Housing

A developed understanding of the

Malawian vernacular (buildings and users)
can increase user satisfaction in
contemporary vernacular housing. Creating
innovative housing for native medical staff
that acknowledges cultural and climatic
needs in order to improve doctor recruitment
and retention for the Malamulo Hospital and
health clinics alike.

Site Plan Parti: Internal Community Arrangement

Acknowledging the vernacular desire to have

private outdoor spaces while maintaining
connection to a more public space, the house are
arranged with a common plaza in the center.
Allowing the house form and tree plantings to
informally define boundaries, the houses gain
private shaded gardens and outdoor spaces with
connection to the main circulation path.

Phasing Strategy: Construction Conscious Phasing

Succumbing to the slope of the site, a phasing

strategy developed to create ease of construction
along the topography, working to way down the
slope. This helps reduce transportation of material
up and down the grade as well as mitigates any
soil run off from construction that the rain could
push into the other houses on site.
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Proposed Site Location

Adjacent to the hospital in the

residential area of the property, the
site sits atop a hill side, gradually
sloping down towards the
southeast. Across the site from
north the south, a thirty foot
gradual drop occurs opening out
into the view of the mountains.
Slightly hidden behind a row of
trees from the road, the site is
provided a visual security barrier.

Site Strategies

Varying responses to the site conditions present themselves within the overall site strategy and master
planning of the housing units. A contextual response lends itself to similarly oriented houses as the
surrounding buildings adjacent to the site in order to blend into the context. Conversely, a climatically
responsive arrangement of house acknowledges the harsh solar conditions and opportunities for natural
ventilation through public and perforated spaces. Orienting the units directly facing North with the long
axis stretching East-West allows for maximum natural ventilation from the winds traveling form the South
West moving up the hillside.

Guiding Principles: Feasible guidelines for design refinement

Understanding the look of resources to materials and power tools the desire to
reduce material modifications is important. With a organizational method
based upon metal roof panels, the houses begin to arrange itself both
structurally and programmatically. This also helps improve circulation common
spaces and most importantly natural ventilation opportunities.
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Proposed Site Plan

PROPOSED FLOOR PLAN

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ELEVATION
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SECTION
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MODEL
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PERSPECTIVE

OTHER PROPOSAL:
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National Doctor Housing Project

INFORMATION

One of the most recent projects to be completed

at Kibuye is the national doctor housing
project. Previously, the team of Burundian doctors
that works with the designers were living in some
pretty outdated missionary homes. They have
always wanted to have Burundian professionals
living and working closely with them, so they
decided to build a new housing complex for them
next to their new houses. These houses were
completed during the summer, and the work crew
has been doing some landscaping over the last
couple of weeks

This is the first unit, closest to the entrance gate, and it is currently occupied
by Dr. Wilson, the Medical Director (see photo left). The designers are
thrilled that his wife Jeanine & young son decided to move to Kibuye from
Bujumbura. Many professional families live apart because it is difficult to
find work in the same place and most of the Kibuye doctors travel back
to Bujumbura on the weekends to be with their families. Jeanine is now a
full-time language instructor in English, Kirundi, & French, primarily for many
of them.

This is the same unit viewed from the entrance gate. The small building is
a cookhouse & storage place for food & other items.

The unit below is the middle unit in the triplex. It has a

shared dining room space for all the single doctors or
those whose families live elsewhere. They tend to eat
their meals together. There are also two bedrooms, a
bathroom, and a living room that is currently being
used by two single male doctors. (You can see the
McLaughlin house in the far right of the picture.)

This is the 3rd unit and it is just opposite the McLaughlin’s

house. We made this unit into two separate single units, each
with their own living room, bathroom, and bedroom. The
designer wanted the versatility of single units for different
doctors that might come along like a married couple with no
children or a single female.
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REFERENCES:

 http://designportfolios.philau.edu/gallery/26209231/Malamulo-Doctors-Housing-Design-X-Thesis

 http://designportfolios.philau.edu/gallery/13205257/Malamulo-Doctors-Students-Housing

 https://mccropders.blogspot.com/2015/10/national-doctor-housing-project.html

 https://www.lemeg.com/project/siloam/

 https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/childrens-hospital/visitor-information/ronald-mcdonald-
house.aspx

 https://www.cancer.org/treatment/support-programs-and-services/patient-lodging/hope-
lodge/rochester-ny/about-our-facility.html