EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER
Architecture competition | Kaira Looro competition
Architecture competition | Kaira Looro competition
THE BRIEF
For the resolution of humanitarian emergencies in Africa
Emergencies strike suddenly and without warning. They level cities to the ground and tear down buildings as though they were made of sand. In almost no time at all everything is destroyed and all that remains is the realisation that you have to get up and start all over again from scratch. In recent years the occurrence of deluges and flooding have increased dramatically. Analogously, conflicts and financial crises persist and lead to the development of serious humanitarian emergencies which put the lives of millions of people at risk. Resolving an emergency of any kind means re-establishing peace and security. The crisis must be dealt with in a timely and coordinated manner that includes reception, sensibility, and awareness. What we are looking for, therefore, is the design of a structure that will house an EOC (Emergency Operations Center) and that can help to facilitate the humanitarian operations of international organisations, allowing them to act with the utmost efficiency.
THE PROJECT
The project is designed around its heart (for both spatial and metaphorical reasons): the courtyard. The environment represented by this open-air setting is a gathering place, where people reunite and re-establish a lost sense of community. The curtains gently define the area.
A 3x3m module generates the whole structure, to make the internal spaces of the EOC the more flexible as possible in order to create an architecture adaptable to any type of emergency.
