TAMassociati/Emergency

TAM champions human rights-based design in partnership with Emergency, an Italian NGO that provides medical treatment to victims of war. The decade-long collaboration of the two organizations has resulted in a replicable model for free, high-quality healthcare and educational facilities in Sudan, Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, Iraq, and Afghanistan. 

The first TAM/Emergency collaboration was on the Salam Centre, a cardiac care hospital at the periphery of Khartoum, Sudan. It is the only hospital in the region providing highly specialized care to patients affected by heart diseases free of charge. Almost a decade of research gave the team a solid understanding of the unique needs of the patients as well as environmental and political factors that had to be taken into consideration.  The result is a system of buildings and related spaces; hospital blocks patterned around a large courtyard, an admissions area, technical and service areas, a guest house for relatives of patients, a prayer/meditation pavilion, and a housing compound for international medical staff.

Together, TAM and Emergency have built five hospitals on the African continent that have treated more than 700,000 patients. In addition, as an extension of their efforts to treat civilians affected by war, they have collaborated on seven clinics in Italy—four of which are mobile units—to provide healthcare to refugees. Emergency and TAM work to create clinics that meet, if not exceed, Western standards while respecting local traditions.

Other projects of Studio TAM include the Anabah Maternity Centre in the Panjshir Valley of Afghanistan, the only specialist and completely free facility in a very large area which is inhabited by at least 250,000 people; health centers in the Kurdistan area of northern Iraq to offer high-quality and free of charge basic healthcare in Refugee Camps and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps; and the new Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe, Uganda with design by Renzo Piano Building Workshop & TAMassociati together with Emergency’s Building Division. 

To learn about one of TAMassociati’s newest, non-healthcare-related projects– an eco-village in Senegal, click on the link to the left for a DOMUS video interview.