SUSTAINABILITY
MÓNICA BEATRIZ CABRAL, ADRIANA DE FÁTIMA LÓPEZ ABASCAL – ARCHITECTS, PHYSICS RESOURCES DEPARTMENT, HEALTH SYSTEM OF THE PROVINCE OF TUCUMÁN
Sustainable architecture in a mountainous area
The aim of this paper is to share the experience of working in a high mountainous area in the north west region of the province of Tucumán in the north of Argentina in the southern half of South America.
Tucumán, which is known as ‘the garden of the republic’, is the smallest of the 24 provinces of Argentina. It is important to point out that 30 per cent of the territory of the province is made up of mountain ranges that reach up to 3000 metres above sea level.
In these mountain ranges, there are
regions that are inaccessible due to their climate and morphology. The main characteristic of the region is the problem of reaching these places. In an area of about 25 km x 45 km, there are seven health facilities. Three of them – Ñorco, Anfama and Lara – can be reached using four wheel drive pick-up trucks and off road motorbikes; the journey takes nearly two hours. The other four health facilities - Mala Mala, San José de Chaquivil, Chaquivil and Ancajuli – can only be reached on foot or on horseback, which takes five to six hours or by helicopter, which takes 30 to 40 minutes. The journey can also be affected by bad weather and poor road conditions. These conditions are crucial to the
health system of the province as its goal is to assist people in the places where they live. As for patient flow, the guideline is to build health facilities in the mountains so that patients do not have to travel long distances to get there. It is worth noting that each health facility serves 25 to 40 indigenous families who live some distance from one another due to the morphology of the mountain ranges. This situation presents a challenge in that the architecture should satisfy sustainable principles but also be functional for users. The aim is to build without affecting the environment and without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In these communities, people mainly gather in schools and churches, which is where the first public health campaigns began and the first health posts were sited. They were initially poor constructions without adequate infrastructure that did not fulfil the National Norms of Quality Assurance of Medical
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Tucumán is the smallest of the 24 provinces of Argentina.
Attention (Normativas Nacionales de Garantía de Calidad para la Atención Médica). Following investment in the health infrastructure, we were set the challenge of replacing these health posts with primary healthcare centres or facilities.
The first public health campaigns were held at the school and the church.
The challenge In such places, there are different issues to consider during construction than when building in an urban area. For example, the distance to travel, the altitude and the climate (snowfall in winter and heavy rainfall in summer) leave these communities cut off and reduce the time available to complete construction without interruption to up to six months. In this area, the application of design policies and guidelines for the preparation of a project draft and budget is also different. The guidelines are analysed taking into account a number of factors. The medical programme responds to the needs of these areas. Doctors travel every 15 days and stay for two or three
Adriana de Fátima López Abascal
Adriana de Fátima López Abascal is an architect. She works as a building inspector and technical documentation manager and
develops projects on health for the Physics Resources Department of the Health System of the Province of Tucumán. She was a
speaker at the 26th Latin-American Congress of AADAIH 2015 in Ushuaia, Argentina. She published a study on controversial aspects in surgical areas in 2008. She has attended several professional
training courses and postgraduate courses on AADAIH at the National University of Tucumán. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the National University of Argentina in 1985.
Mónica Beatriz Cabral
Mónica Beatriz Cabral is an architect who works as a building inspector and technical documentation manager. She develops projects on health for the Physics Resources Department of the Health System of the Province of Tucumán. She was a speaker at the 26th Latin-American Congress of AADAIH in 2015 in Ushuaia, Argentina. She has attended several professional training courses on AADAIH at the National University of Tucumán. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the National University of Argentina in 1985.
IFHE DIGEST 2018
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