Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Philip Crowson A model by Jose M. Hilario, a senior enviromental design major, shows an idea for a sustainable boat clinic to support the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam. [Click to enlarge]

Five weeks ago, students in a Texas A&M University architecture-for-health design studio received what they said was an unusual and memorable project from the studio instructor, George Mann.

The students were instructed to design boat clinics, or floating facilities, to provide health care services to millions of people in the coastal areas of Vietnam and the Philippines.

"The need for health facilities in these areas is tremendous," said Mann, professor of Skaggs-Sprague Endowed Chairman in Health Facilities Design. "Many of these people living outside of the metropolitan areas do not have access to roads or health care, but live near rivers."

Before assigning the project, Mann received a call from a former student working in Vietnam. The former student described some of the issues that Vietnam and the Philippines were striving to turn around, giving Mann the idea for boat clinics.

"I researched problems in the Philippines and found there was a high infant and maternal mortality rate," said Southern Ellis, a senior environmental design major. "So I developed a network for three clinics with an ambulance boat that had tele-medications, including TV and videos, used to connect those who are not qualified to the main hospitals down the way."

The students focused on issues that required specific care. They researched the projects for weeks, paying attention to needs and tactics used for building the boats, and enabling those living there to build the boats more easily.

"The sustainability is important, because you have to allot for the fact that these people don't have tons of building materials," said Brandon Johnson, a senior environmental design major.

"My boat comprised of local material, teak from Indonesia and natural ventilation so not as much space is taken," Johnson said.

As architecture majors, most of the seniors had never been assigned a project so unique and requiring so much experience. They had also never done construction on water.

"I had no idea how to design a boat; it was a whole different idea of design in general," said Anthony Legamaro, a senior environmental design major. "After some help, I ended up designing a boat that runs along the coast of Southern Philippines and makes recon stops four times a year to give vaccinations to help prevent some of the infectious diseases."

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