Open Collections

Goodman, Anna

Disaster Response Network is an architectural proposal to convert thirty-two decommissioned Cold War-era ammunition storage depots across the United States into a geographically distributed network of temporary intensive care units available to COVID-19 patients and the victims of future outbreaks. The defunct military infrastructure sites targeted in the proposal collectively contain over 20,000 bunkers. If fully implemented, the project will increase the number of intensive care units in US medical facilities by a factor of four, alleviating strain placed on the system by the current pandemic. The architectural design of the project limits the spread of the disease while ensuring the safety of patients, medical personnel and visitors through carefully planned circulation routes. Visitors interact with patients through protective barriers that allow acoustic and visual connection while blocking virus transmission, addressing issues of loneliness and social isolation that present challenges during illness and hamper recovery. The landscape surrounding the facility is designed to encourage safe access to the outdoors during recovery. In the future, the sites targeted by the project will be used as emergency command centres capable of housing stockpiles of medical supplies and emergency shelters, ensuring preparedness for future outbreaks and other disasters. When active response is not required, remediation efforts will restore the ecological health of the sites themselves, adding to regional biodiversity. Disaster Response Network responds to the current COVID-19 pandemic by restoring obsolete infrastructure, streamlining the country’s disaster response capabilities and enabling more effective response to future concerns.

South Dakota

Text

University of British Columbia. ARCH 549

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0390674

Applied Science, Faculty of; Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/