Troy, N.Y. — Two Rensselaer architecture students have received awards in an international juried competition for their original design of a mobile HIV/AIDS health clinic to be used in sub-Saharan Africa. The competition was sponsored by Architecture for Humanity to design a fully equipped, mobile medical unit and treatment center that could be used for testing, prevention, and treatment of the disease, and to disseminate information and provide basic health care services.

The design submitted by Brendan Harnett and Michelle Myers, fifth-year architecture students at Rensselaer, was named "Best Student Entry" and was awarded second place overall. They were the only student team and the only U.S. entrants to win in the competition.

Their unit, called B.O.C.S.M.E.D.S (Basic Operable Container System for Medical Equipment Distribution and Supply), was selected from more than 522 teams representing 50 nations. An international jury of architects and medical professionals selected the winners.

It is estimated that three-quarters of the world's AIDS population lives in sub-Saharan Africa; most have no access to lifesaving drugs, testing facilities, or even basic preventative care. One of the major factors inhibiting medical professionals in Africa from treating the disease is the inability to access vast areas of the continent with adequately equipped facilities.

"We took a pragmatic design approach which broke down a mobile medical unit into its constituent parts and packaged them for easy transport," said Harnett, who also runs his own design business. "Our goal was to provide the health-care professionals and volunteers with a scalable, adaptable, and highly mobile set of building blocks with which they can create temporary clinics specific to their requirements and the needs of the people they are treating."

The B.O.C.S.M.E.D.S units can be transported by train, truck, automobile, even cart or porters in some remote areas. The modular approach assures the units are standardized and interchangeable, while providing the local operators as many options as possible for dealing with the diverse challenges involved with HIV/AIDS treatment.

"We focused on the practicality of the system as a whole. It provides a safe and simple way to transport an entire medical clinic to any living condition," says Myers. "Given the complexity of the disease in Africa, everything from testing to treatment to getting information out there, we feel that it is important that the design be about practicality and simplicity."

The units are composed of three basic but interchangeable pieces - power generation, water management, and shelter systems. Medical units range from simple medical supply containers to those designated to carry specific medical equipment. Others include portable examination rooms, washbasins, and cryopreservation units. Auxiliary equipment units help build and maintain the infrastructure, and living units can be supplied as amenities to volunteers and health-care workers.

The B.O.C.S.M.E.D.S units are framed with lightweight aluminum angles to which both hardware and foamed aluminum infill panels are attached. The foamed aluminum panels are strong and lightweight, and extremely rigid and durable. In addition, they offer acoustical dampening properties, which will reduce the noise produced by some infrastructural units.

All fifth-year students in Rensselaer's architecture program submitted designs to this international competition as part of their final senior project, said Alan Balfour, dean of the School of Architecture.

"This is the third year running that Rensselaer students have had success in professional competitions nationally; note that this time they were literally competing against the world," said Balfour. "Michelle and Brendan's entry represents the strength and uniqueness of design teaching at Rensselaer. These qualities so impressed the organizers that seven other Rensselaer submissions will be included in the exhibition."

An exhibition of the winning entries and selected designs will open Friday, Dec. 6, at the Van Alen Institute, on 30 West 22nd Street in New York City. The exhibit will run through Jan. 31, 2003 and will then travel throughout the United States and internationally with the support of Virgin Atlantic and Duggal Visual Solutions. Money raised from submission fees, donations, and additional fund-raising activities will be used to build one or more prototypes of the winning concepts. Once developed, it is hoped that refined versions of these cost-effective and mobile designs can be built for Africa-and eventually, easily replicated in other regions around the world.

About Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity (www.architectureforhumanity.org) is a volunteer organization founded by 28-year-old designer Cameron Sinclair in 1999. A registered nonprofit organization, Architecture for Humanity encourages architects and designers to seek solutions to global social and humanitarian crises. With each project a new advisory board is assembled based on their individual areas of expertise. For its most recent project, the Mobile HIV/AIDS Health Clinic For Africa, the nine-member board includes Pritzker-prize winning architect Frank Gehry, FAIA; Ambassador Richard Swett, FAIA; South African architect Rodney Harber; Kenyan Architect Reuben Mutiso; IAVI Vice President Kate Bourne; Dr. Johannes van Dam of the Population Council; Dr. Sunanda Ray, Executive Director of SafAIDS based in Zimbabwe; and Dr. Michael Sweat of John Hopkins University.

Contact: Megan Galbraith
Phone: (518) 276-6531
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