Designed for a non government organization (NGO) named Emergency, the design aims to provide free health-care to patients across a 10 million square kilometer radius. The architects designed a place to accommodate prayer as is the custom of any place of health-care in the country.
Designed to accommodate the prayer and meditation of all faiths, the prayer center has a large water pool outside. The structure appears to float above the pool, which separates the building from the rest of the hospital. The pool acts a strongly symbolic image in the sub-Saharan zone.
The pool is set to create a spiritual separation between the external macrocosm of the hospital/world and the central microcosm of the building. Formed by two unaligned white cubes, the prayer spaces are covered by a semi-transparent cover of palm leaf stalks which filter sunlight. The palm leaf stalks allow the building to be naturally lit.
The inner parts of the two cubes contain two trees creating a feeling of natural elements inside artificial spaces.
The architects considered adding symbolic elements from the Muslim faith, which is the religion of the majority of the Sudanese, but consciously decreased the contextual impact of the rules in the building. All the symbols and elements specific to only one religion have been concealed. For example, the ablution area is only a higher water spray that allows for washing before entrance, without connoting a strong religious symbol. Moreover, it is simply perceived as an element of the water pool.
Roberto Crestan is the site engineer while Pietro Parrino is the program coordinator of the project.
