Titolo THE HULL
Typology COMPETITION Kaira Looro
Year 2020
Project site Mali
This project is drawn in order to respond to the very first need of people, forced to flee from civil wars, terrorism, natural disasters, famine or earthquakes. The Hull is an courtyard stuck in the border between a dangerous area and a safe zone. It is ment to be the first safe place where the beneficiary can find water, food and a first health assessment. The Hull is a door that leads to a refugee camp, where the international actors might organized the humanitarian response to the crisis.
Refugees’ necessity is to find a welcome courtyard that is concretized by a brick fence. A permanent fence built with raw-earth bricks, sheltered by a wood and straw cover, represents the arrival point of an escape and the starting point towards the reception field. At the Hull entrance there are two water points and severals services. People entering the Hull will be divided into women with children and man. They will wait in line to be welcomed, clinically assessed and registrated in the triaging area. Since this structure is meant to accommodate a large number of people, the design of the waiting space it is quite relevant: it is an outdoor space, a courtyard, like the traditional ones, shaded by a roof made by a wooden structure and a straw mantle. This element promotes the shading of the waiting seats and, through the inclination, the roof collects the rainwater in two tanks that supply water for the services and the Health Care Center.
The end of the enclosure hosts four triage points (12 mq each): here people are registered and they receive a basic health assesment. After the registration, people cross the border and, through a large covered corridor, they walk to the safe area: the Emergency Operation Center.
The Center is divided into two units, both of them have got the same size. People entering the center will find, on their left, the Hull’s Brain, where logistic, administrative ans managerial deparment are set. On their right, migrants find the Health Care Center.
Both located in the protected area, these cores are characterized by the same flexible structure: a square module, in metal poles welded together, supports dividers in truck tarpaulins. This scheme (9 mq) constitutes the basic plan unit, sufficiently large to accomodate an office, the dressing room or the pharmacy. This system offers flexibility, regarding the total area of the center as the internal division of the functions. Depending on the nature of the crisis (naturalistic or politic), the modules of the Hull’s Brain can be increased and the Health Care Center can be decreased or vice versa.
Use of materials
The Hull was conceived built by natural materials belonging to the domestic tradition of Sub-Saharan Africa, in a tropical climate: clay bricks, wooden sticks of different sizes, a vegetable thatched roof. Where the priorities become sanitation, waterproofing and flexibility of spaces, it is preferred to assign the metal structure, the recycled truck tarpaulin dividers, or plastic sheeting found on the spot. In the whole project, the roof has got a wooden structure, while metal sheet is the most suitable material to protect the Health Care Center and the Logistics center. However, the used materials must be adapted to the area where the project is located and to the season during which it takes place. The roof during the dry season will be completely vegetable, providing the shadow. In case of need, the structure of the operating centers can be made of wooden sticks, the predominant construction methodology in green and rural contexts.
Construction process
Since the Hull is a modular project and composed by units disconnected from each other, it is important to establish the order of realization at the beginning of the construction process. The first phase consists in realizing the enclosure of people on the run, straddling the border, creating the brick fence in raw earth. Then it is mandatory to build the cisterns, toilets and arrange the water point as the first services, which represent the primary needs of those who will be welcomed. We proceed by assembling the dry modular structure of the two operating centers, the metal frame and the tarpaulins. The center is completed by building the plant cover of the courtyard area, followed by the roofs of the health and logistics center. The construction process can also be modified according to the seasons, as well as the materials. In the rainy season, making the sheet metal cover, in the first phase, allows you to assemble and equip the EOC more carefully, away from the tropical rains.