Italian architect Renzo Piano is building a major new health facility, the Centre of Excellence in Paediatric Surgery, in Uganda.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop has unveiled photographs of the new children's hospital, which is currently under construction in Entebbe, on the banks of Lake Victoria.
The project, set to be the studio's first in Africa, is a collaboration with fellow Italian studio TAMassociati, for Emergency, the Italian non-profit organisation led by Gino Strada.
It comprises four blocks that are connected by sheltered walkways
The Centre of Excellence in Paediatric Surgery will be presented in an exhibition during Milan design week next week, showing both these photographs and a scale model of the building that featured in the Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Building exhibition in London. The building takes the form of four different-sized blocks, which slot into the sloping landscape and are connected by sheltered walkways.
The thick walls are being constructed from rammed earth, chosen because it is readily available in the area, and because it could be constructed by local builders, without any need for specialist construction workers.

With high thermal mass properties, the use of rammed earth will also help to keep temperature and humidity constant inside the hospital.
"The challenge of this new project of Emergency NGO is to combine the practical requirements of a paediatric surgery hospital in Africa with the desire to create a model piece ...