ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
New Malawi training centre ‘transformational’
Paul Moores, a founding director of FBW Group based in Kampala, Uganda, since 1998, describes the practice’s work, following initial design by another firm, to lead the African design and technical team to take forward a specialist postgraduate medical and research training centre in Malawi’s second biggest city.
The newly opened Clinical Research Excellence And Training Open Resource (CREATOR) is a specialist postgraduate medical and research training centre in Malawi. It will provide the most sophisticated clinical research training environment in the region, and will be truly transformational and life-changing for the African nation. CREATOR, which has been built in the city of Blantyre, the country’s second largest city, was officially opened by the President of Malawi, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, in a ceremony in August this year. The vision of CREATOR is to transform postgraduate medical education and research in sub-Saharan Africa. Its mission is to ensure that medical and scientific expertise will remain in Malawi, helping to inspire the next generation of African scientists. CREATOR will be critical in both training and retaining the brightest clinical and research talent in-country, and in promoting a sustainable clinical research eco-system in Malawi. It has been developed to focus on catalysing new ideas, better health outcomes, and improved clinical care for the people of Malawi and the wider sub-Saharan African region.
A ‘modern and welcoming’ aesthetic The architectural design of the CREATOR building combines a modern scientific and welcoming aesthetic, with high technical performance specifications and longevity. The facility’s inspirational design includes a roof celebration space, ‘team project’ desks for interdisciplinary working, and an Innovation Hub for translational support and enterprise development. The five-storey building has a ‘Round Room’ for collaborative decision-making, and a webinar theatre for international learning and teaching engagement. Its wide range of facilities include a new laboratory, allowing for single-cell transcriptomics, modern imaging and rapid pathogen sequencing, modern teaching spaces, a postgraduate resource centre for 200 clinical trainees, and library space and offices to support advanced epidemiology and clinical trials. CREATOR has been designed to deliver opportunities for clinicians and researchers to make themselves experts. Recording and live-stream capabilities enable interaction with global health leaders anywhere else in the world.
A partnership approach CREATOR is a partnership between KUHes (previously the College of Medicine), Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), the University of Liverpool, and the medical research charity, Wellcome.
November 2024 Health Estate Journal 57
It will significantly enhance the work of The Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Research Programme (MLW). The multi-million-pound investment will support MLW with additional research facilities and space for postgraduate medical training, helping to retain talent and expertise in the region, and scaling up research capacity by 30% over the next decade. It has almost doubled MLW’s physical capacity, and
will make MLW better equipped to meet emerging health challenges – from the impacts of climate change to non- communicable diseases. Since 1995, MLW has contributed to the improvement
of healthcare by translating its research into policy and practice in Malawi and beyond. MLW began its research with a single focus on Cerebral Malaria, but over time its
The CREATOR project was launched in 2019. Preston-based architecture practice, Cassidy + Ashton, worked on the initial design stages for the centre, along with Manchester- headquartered structural engineering specialist, TRP Consulting.
An architectural site plan of the new research and training facility.
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