Design interventions into pre-existing sites play a critical role in global healthcare. The 2023 Epidemic Urbanism Initiative Design Competition will focus on adaptive reuse, inviting submissions that consider how pre-existing vacant, underused, or currently used sites, structures, and spaces can be transformed into healthcare settings with thoughtful, sustainable design interventions. Many communities rely on the adaptive reuse of spaces designated or constructed for other purposes to fulfil community healthcare needs, whether it is a former school repurposed as a vaccination clinic in western Canada, a house converted into a women’s health centre in Kenya, or a field transformed into a temporary hospital comprised of tents and outbuildings in Bolivia. Global health crises, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, create an urgent need to transform existing buildings and sites for both ongoing community care and emergency treatment. This adaptive reuse is the theme of the 2023 EUI Design Competition.  

Submissions should be centred on developing holistic design responses to community health inclusive of physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects, offer equity and accessibility, and pay attention to how locally sourced and sustainable materials can be used to adapt pre-existing sites into healthcare facilities.

Submission Categories

- COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE: Using an existing site or building, design a permanent, sustainable space that addresses current community health issues in the manner of a community health centre, a clinic, a centre for women’s health, etc.

- EMERGENCY TREATMENT CENTRE: Using an existing site or building, design a space that considers a future epidemic and the accompanying need for emergency treatment and isolation spaces.

Factors to Consider

- Some epidemics and health concerns are global (COVID-19 and flu), while some may be specific to regions, countries, or cities (malaria; heart disease) due to environmental, climatic, socio-economic, and other factors

- Communities deal with epidemics that can include a wide range of both short-term and long-term issues, such as viral and bacterial illnesses, obesity, mental health, violence (guns, domestic disputes), addiction, poor nutrition, etc.

- Your community may place an emphasis on issues that are different from other regions, or that may be different from wider global concerns

- Healthcare and epidemic conditions may be related to contextual cultural, religious, socio-economic, and architectural factors that should be considered in your submission

Questions to Address 

- What health issues does your community deal with and how is a vision for social health addressed in your community?

- How can you bring the local community together to identify and address community health issues?

- How can you transform an existing building or site to address epidemics and health issues within your community, and how can your design solutions help to prevent future epidemics and address local health issues?

- How can your design solutions promote intergenerational connections and address cultural requirements for healthcare spaces such as settings for families, spaces for people at risk, and gendered or non-gendered spaces?

- How does your design consider locally sourced, locally available, and sustainable building components including repurposed materials to create a healthy environment for community members?

- How does your design address the capacity for local construction (workforce, equipment, seasonal conditions)?

Contextual Parameters 

- LOCAL CONTEXT: urban or rural; any country or region; any topography

- SITE: existing vacant/used/underused buildings or sites

- USER: your community

- POPULATION: multigenerational, multilingual, multi-religious

- SCALE: dependent on the needs of the community and the site selected for adaptive reuse

- RESEARCH: the project should be evidence-based (research must be presented by the team as part of the submission)

- LANDSCAPE: the project should integrate and engage landscape in its design where appropriate

Eligibility Requirements

- Teams should include professionals, faculty, and students

- Teams are strongly encouraged to include experts such as those working in public health, psychology, social work, engineering, medicine (nurses, clinicians, other practitioners), etc.

- The project will include both a Research and a Design component; both must be submitted together

- The project should use local traditions, building materials, topography, and connections in order to engage the community

The submission should clarify the following:

- Conditions of the site (topography, etc.)

- Approximate/estimated number of users (and their demographics)

- Function/typology of the pre-existing building or site

- Accessibility of the site to the nearby neighbourhoods and communities

- Specific needs of the local community

- How the adaptive redesign submission will address some or all of the concerns stated above

Design Components

- Research information and evidence (written statement)

- Diagrams 

- Images of the site

- Floor plans, façades, and sections

- Three-dimensional models superimposed over actual site specs or images

Submission Format and Details

- Portfolio (as a single PDF file): Four vertical A3 (portrait not landscape) pages. The four sheets can be presented individually or can be combined to form an A1 poster. Please label this file TEAM NAME_PORTFOLIO 

- Written statement (as a Word document or PDF): 300-500 words explaining the contextual and conceptual factors of the project and how the design responds to the questions above. Please label this file TEAM NAME_WRITTEN STATEMENT

- Cover page (as a Word document or PDF): include the competition category (Community Healthcare Centre or Emergency Treatment Centre); team name; contact information for the team; the names, roles, and affiliations of all team members; the name and location of the re-used site/building. Please label this file TEAM NAME_COVER PAGE

- Email your projects to [email protected] 

- Shortlisted teams will be asked to submit a video of five minutes in length to explain their proposed project by July 15, 2023. Further instructions will be provided.

- All teams who have submitted entries will be asked to share feedback on the videos submitted by the shortlisted teams

- Videos, jury discussions, and feedback videos will be posted to the Epidemic Urbanism Initiative website and YouTube channel to be used as educational tools

Significant Dates

Deadline for inquiries: April 30, 2023

Deadline for submissions: May 30, 2023

Convening of review committees: June 2023

Deadline for submission of videos by shortlisted teams: July 15, 2023

Announcement of shortlisted projects: August 1, 2023

Jury meetings: September 2023

Announcement of awards: September 30, 2023

Awards

- First prize for each category: $2000

- Two finalists for each category: $500

- All participants attending the final review meetings will receive an EUI certificate

- Shortlisted projects will be announced on the EUI website, the EDRA newsletter, and major architectural websites

Sponsors

Organizations: Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and National Center for Smart Growth (NCSG) 

Architectural firms: CRGA, Cunningham, GRIMM+PARKER

Contact and Submission Information: Email your questions and submissions to [email protected].

Read more details on the competition's website. 

Top image courtesy of Epidemic Urbanism Initiative Design Competition.

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