Adaptive Reuse: Design Transformations for Community Healthcare

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 fulfill 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 center 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 centered 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.