"HEALTH CARE ON THE MOVE"
HOSPITAL TRAIN AND TRANSFORMATION
Watertown, Massachusetts
Fall 2020 (half semester)
Partner Siying Han
Academic, Architecture Option Studio, Harvard GSD
Instructor Spela Videcnik & Rok Oman
The project's intention is to integrate the new urban norm with a system of mobility and explore a new dynamic of health care and a sustainable urban environment. Under technological and social forces, the mobility patterns constructed through existing infrastructural systems will have the ability to facilitate the consolidation of health care, while ensuring efficient health outcomes and patient experiences.
​
‘Spaces of isolation’ does not follow with a single or static definition but one adapting to a variety of urban situations. While the infrastructural system eliminates the distance between one place and another, they marginalized fragments of urban spaces. With the nature of being a ‘space of isolation’ for the new norm that came along with covid-19, the railway system is an ideal ‘campground’ to accommodate individuals with medical needs. However, from another perspective, these fragmented spaces demand modifications to accommodate and stimulate communal exchanges to build up a sustainable urban model that is transformative in multiple layers of urban engagement, in order to fit in different periods of time and stages.
Introduction 01
Cases in last 7 days of Covid-19,
CDC updated Sep 9th, 2020
USNS Hospital Ship in NYC, March 30th, 2020
Coronavirus Outbreaks 02
Conventional medical system model
Proposed medical hospital train system model
To achieve this by three steps:
(a). Redesign and remanufacture the traditional abandoned train cabin to ensure the spaces fulfill medical requirements.
(b). Gather medical resources and overloaded patients at the railway station and loaded to the train.
(c). Run to the suburban areas where lack of medical services, stay on the abandoned railway line or create temporary camp to provide temporary medical surgery.
(a).
(b).
(c).
Operation Models 03
Compared to the conventional medical system model which concentrates the resources in the urban hospital, the proposed medical hospital train distributes the workflow into several steps in different places and shortens the transit distance between the patients and medical services.
Four potential sites for temporary medical camps
Abandoned Watertown Branch
Fitchburg Line, Boston MBTA
The project does not have a specific site, but it is a health care model that can be applied to multiple areas. The hospital train can run to the place where the local hospitals are overloaded. The train uses the existing operating railway line for transfer and uses the abandoned railway line for stopping and provide temporary surgery to make up the medical resource shortage. The project is using the Watertown branch in Boston as an example which abandoned decades ago. The ideal sites for train stopping and create temporary camps are the marginalized urban space. They are always far away from the densely populated areas and can be easily isolated from the general citizens.
Reuse Abandoned Railway 04
Abandoned Railway Lines (photos from web)
The cabins are designed into three different levels of medical standards to fulfill the different physical conditions of the patients. Module A and B have higher levels of medical equipment but due to the specific spatial requirements, they have less flexibility to transform into social housing after the COVID. Module C provides isolation rooms that have two different modes to adapt to the running or staying conditions of the train.
Redesign The Cabins 05
Module A
Acute Care Train Cabin
​ICU (Intensive Care Unit) / Emergency Unit​
Laboratory Unit​
Pharmacy Unit​
Medical Assistant Station​
CT Scanner Room / Radiology Suites​
Isolation Ward:​
Anteroom / Airlock Clean Utility ​
Clean / Dirty Storage​
Ensuite (Shower and Toilet)
Higher acuity cares for COVID-19 patients, who require significant ventilatory support, including intensive monitoring on a ventilator. ​
Module B
Inpatient Care Train Cabin
Intensive Care Bed​
Diagnostics ​
Medical Assistant Station​
Airlock​
Medication Storage / Preparation Area ​
Mental Health Consultation​
Food Service​
Ensuite (Shower and Toilet)
Mid-level care for moderately symptomatic COVID-19 patients, who require nursing care and assistance with activities of daily living (ADL).
Module C
Isolation Room Train Cabin
Patient Bed / Isolation Room ​
Housekeeping Unit​
Food Services / Kitchen Unit​
Laundry Facilities ​
Bathrooms
General, low-level care for mildly to moderately symptomatic COVID-19 patients, who do not require extensive nursing care or assistance with activities of daily living (ADL).
Isolated Room Unit
Transit Mode
Expanded Mode
Kitchen and Maintenance Unit
Medical Lab Unit
Deconstruct The Cabins
After the isolation of COVID, the modules contain the possibilities to be transformed and aggregated to revitalize the urban spaces where marginalized by the railways.
​
By cutting, unfolding, and recombining the cabins, multiple programs can be created. Three main programs within this site are a theater where people can gather, an outdoor reading deck connected to the existing public library, and a skateboard park for local youths. They like the anchor points that organize the entire community structure.
After Coronavirus Transformation 06
Elevated Deck + Skateboard Park
Theater
Outdoor Reading Deck
View to the skateboard park
Existing Parking Lot
COVID-19 Condition - Temporary Camp For Medical Train
Construction Steps - Right click to continue
Final Axon
Section cut through the theater
Master Plan
