Elizabeth Lum and Matthew Tsou
Premise
Design a pneumatic medical facility for Changi General Hospital (CGH) to plug/ pre-empt future gaps in the healthcare system which may require these temporal and easily deployable structures.
Process
Morphological Table
To begin with, we were introduced to the morphological box framework, and pneumatic nomenclature as coined by Gernot Minke. This system of components e.g., point support, linear support, support arrangement, pressure of structure etc. can be permutated for systematic exploration of forms, and provides a standardised way to classify precedent pneumatic structures.
Our first task was to familiarise ourselves with this convention by using the morphological box as a tool. As a pair, we decided to pursue different avenues of exploration to maximise the breadth of research. The 2 aspects of exploration we were interested in are – position of supporting frames and the resultant soap film and manipulation of push and pull forces in various configurations applied on a membrane.
Precedent Study
Concurrently, we also conducted a precedent study of existing pneumatic structures. Our chosen projects are: Inflatable Tea House by Kengo Kuma and Bubble Dome by Pneuhaus.
Inflatable Tea House – Kengo Kuma
The peanut-shaped, self-supporting structure is constructed from two membranes that are welded airtight to one another and the linked by thin synthetic cables that are positioned with a density of 4-5 cables per square meter of surface. The membrane is made of Tenara 3T40, which is a material similar to that of inflatable boats. The structure is inflated to a pressure if 1.5kPa and is capable of withstanding the elements. The method of restraining the material using thin cables was fascinating and therein lies potential to scale up the cables to the scale of column supports, or even to use cables of varying lengths to pull the material down to different heights, as a method of creating soft delineations between spaces.
Bubble Dome – Pneuhaus
Partially inflated TPU balls are placed into a nylon woven net, before being fully inflated. These balls are first agglomerated into larger shapes i.e., triangular (3 balls), pentagonal (5 balls) and hexagonal (6 balls) before being connected to form the large structure. The system of construction is analogous to bricks and mortar as represented by TPU balls and nylon net respectively. What interested us most about this study was the modularity and consequent versatility afforded by the method of construction. Potentially, we would want to expand upon that concept in our own pneumatic structure.
CGH Lecture
We were very fortunate to be able to hear about the medium of air both as a transmission medium for diseases, and as a means to isolate patients with low immunity/ infectious disease virus carriers using differently pressured rooms.
This provided us with a starting point as we begin to flesh out the narrative of our pneumatic structure, and its relevance to the healthcare industry.
Research into Air and Body and Emerging Healthcare Trends
While the CGH lecture provided us with knowledge of air as a pathogen transmission medium, we wanted to delve deeper into the tangible and possibly holistic effects of air on the human body.
Some of the research that we found to be interesting:
- Poor air quality has a negative effect on health/ recovery. This can be a result of pollution, high temperatures, high humidity, or low amounts of oxygen in the air.
- Possible use of a double membrane pneumatic structure both as a structural element as well as filtration device, in which there are HEPA filters between membrane layers to ensure good air quality
- Thinking of the pneumatic structure as a lung in its utility and function
- At high pressures, one is prone to oxygen poisoning, and mental/ emotional abnormalities from exposure to too much nitrogen.
- Quality of air refers to oxygenated air in medical terms. Physical health benefits such as better immunity, better digestion, better brain function are a result of receiving more oxygen.
- Fresh air can improve psychological wellbeing and mood, but often in tandem with either the outdoors, sunlight, or both. Fresh air in this case is likely to be a perception or an association made with being in a natural outdoor environment.
- Invoke a sense of fresh air by manually tampering with its qualities i.e., water content, temperature, flow rate, scent etc.
- Couple outdoors and fresh air by having a layer of greenery contained within the air gap of the double membrane.
- Opacity of membrane can be controlled/ variable to allow sunlight in when desired/ at opportune times of day
- Healthcare trends
- Increased frequency of pandemic and epidemic occurrences
- Telemedicine
- Aging population/ elderly care
Crafting our Narrative
Although we now had some inkling of the benefit of air on the body, we had yet to identify how this could be woven into a larger narrative. The function of the space to be designed had also yet to have been crystallised. Hence, research into the needs of the healthcare industry was necessary, bearing in mind the temporal, adaptable and easily deployable nature of pneumatic structures.
Some ideas we flirted with:
- Mobile clinics to service foreign worker dormitories and factory sites
- Mobile clinics to decentralise and disperse load on polyclinics
- Mobile clinics that conduct screenings
- Mobile clinics to service telehealth
- Mobile clinics as temporary holding sites while medical facilities are being renovated/ built
However, we found that in the local context, all the above needs were either none too promising as a solution, or that they can already be readily fulfilled by use of void decks, and community club spaces. There was no gap in the local healthcare system that can be better fulfilled by a pneumatic structure than one that is traditionally ‘hard’ architecture.
Hence, we zoomed out and took a more global view regarding healthcare. Rural healthcare in particular is ripe for opportunity. Due to the lack of existing infrastructure, and the inaccessibility to the city, where healthcare facilities are more readily available, a mobile clinic could potentially increase reach to the underserved population, typically those who are on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. These pneumatic structures can easily be deployed to house the following functions (a non-exhaustive list, which do not require intense equipment):
- Dental work
- Minor surgeries
- Normal consultation
- Health screening
- COVID swabbing
- Vaccination
Future Work
Form Finding Exploration
Despite the smaller scale nature of our intervention, there are still many facilities to be housed, each in different rooms. Our interest is in how we can delineate spaces or zones as part of the pneumatic structure, to house these smaller sub programmes in a way that is intuitive to navigate and welcoming to the patient.
Air Simulations
Air simulations are to be conducted using baseline medical facilities and standard parameters for air flow- Air Changes/ Hour (ACH), humidity, temperature, direction of travel, pressure relative to adjacent room etc. This is to serve as a standard for which to compare against in consideration of our proposed medical facility and ensure that the air quality/ ventilation we provide is sufficient if not better than the baseline.