UC Partnership Hopes To Build Health Center in Tanzania

DAAP's Michael Zaretsky and architecture students have been working to design a health center that will make a dramatic difference for one Tanzanian community.

In the Tarime region surrounding the community of Roche, Tanzania, anyone wanting medical care must walk for miles to reach the nearest city.

That includes women in labor or people with serious injuries, according to Michael Zaretsky, assistant professor of architecture in the University of Cincinnati's top-ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP).

Michael Zaretsky in Roche.
DAAP's Michael Zaretsky in Roche, Tanzania.
Zaretsky was recently in Roche in October where he performed a site visit and met local residents as part of an ongoing project to design and build a health center in the community. That project not only involves Zaretsky and his graduate architecture students but faculty in UC's College of Medicine (Chris Lewis) and College of Engineering (Dan Oerther) as well as engineers at the prestigious global firm, Arup, in Chicago.


UC's connection with the people of Tanzania began when the College of Medicine's Chris Lewis, M.D., had a 2003 family medicine residency at a hospital in Shirati, Tanzania. He recalled leaving that residency rotation to return to Cincinnati.

"When that puddle jumper plane took off, the people from the region were there to see me off. As the plane took off, all the children were waving. I knew that I would just have to return some day," he said.

That's when he and colleagues began Village Life Outreach Project, and it's a non-profit organization that provides needed services for Tanzania and invaluable global education opportunities for UC students.

The latest case in point consists of 14 graduate architecture students in DAAP who have been working with Zaretsky to design a health center for Roche as part of an elective studio course.
Site of planned health center.
This site in Roche, Tanzania, is the hoped-for home of the future health center DAAP architecture students have helped to design.

Said Zaretsky, "When it's a real-world project with real clients, students work so much harder."

Graduate architecture student Conor Brady of Cleveland, agreed. The lessons learned in designing the center - which it's hoped will be built within two years - are many. These include research related to building materials and methods in the region as well as climate, culture, economy and history of the region.
Rendering of future health center.
A rendering of what the hoped-for future health center might look like.

Brady explained, "One example of how we've had to understand the culture at work in Tanzania in order to complete the design has to do with perceptions of safety and security. We're designing a fairly complex, multi-purpose facility that will be surrounded by an outer wall and have only one entrance. We've had the challenge of working with this limitation while still completing an integrated design because we know that unless the population around Roche perceives this clinic and community center as a safe place, they won't come to it."

There are other challenges too. The DAAP architecture team must devise a health center design with natural cooling methods because electricity (and running water) won't necessarily be available to the health center in its first years in operation. The design team is also exploring options whereby the center will meet some or all of its own electric needs via solar or wind power.

And, importantly, they must also design living, education and commercial structures linked to the health center.
Housing model.
A model, created by UC architecture students, of housing to be developed as part of the health center.

Zaretsky explained, "Living quarters for medical staff are part of the health center. Travel is difficult and on-site residential structures must be part of the center. Doctors and nurses live on site in single-family residences. Other developments - like a school and commerce center - then become a natural part of the development. So, while we're initially talking about a health center here, we're really talking about a fairly complete community center in the long run. For the students, it's not only the simple design of a health center, it's a real-world exercise in master planning a site."

That was one of the reasons he was attracted to the project when offered the opportunity. "It's designing on an institutional scale, a project that will affect a lot of people. It requires attention to sustainability and a region's individuality. That's why it's such a great learning opportunity for students."
Rendering of health center.
Another view of the rendering, created by UC students, of what the hoped-for health center might look like.

Because of the overall real-world focus of DAAP's design curriculum - which includes requirements that students co-op (work in the professional world for professional-level wages) - Zaretsky figured that students would jump at the chance to take an elective course where they would be able to make a definite real-world impact.

He was right. In the fall-quarter course, students built a solar cooker to explore both the possibilities and the limits of solar-powered appliances. They've worked extremely hard, aware that a community is counting on them.

Graduate student Brady agreed, "We've been forced to work through tough problems caused by the limitations in terms of only using native materials, staying within a certain budget in terms of estimated construction costs, environmental and climatic factors, designing for large-scale needs in small spaces, all while seeking to create a wonderful floor plan and experience for the future patients."

The UC team hopes that construction on the health center will begin this summer. On Dec. 8, they presented their final design to clients - represented by Village Life Outreach Project, Dr. Lewis and another physician who has worked in the region for 20 years.