UAP/DOH Hospital Design Seminar

The participants of the UAP/DOH Hospital Design Seminar

Last month I attended a week long seminar on Hospital Design organized jointly by the United Architects of the Philippines and the Department of Health. There were participants from Iloilo, Negros, and Bacolod, as well as from Cebu. There were 26 participants all in all. It was very memorable to me for many reasons: first, I met a batch mate I have not seen for a long time now; second, the things I learned were very interesting and very useful; third, the stress we had to go through to complete the course made our "graduation" very meaningfu; and so many other reasons...

Architects Luis, Samosa, and Penafiel were the main facilitators. Technical people from the Department of Health also went to share their expertise on utility systems and the legal aspects of hospital design. Architect Cristopher Espina also went on the third day to discuss some zones of the hospital. I was asked to write an article about it for the UAP Post so I will reserve the more technical write-up in that article.

There were exercises given after every major lecture. We also had a main project. At the start of the seminar, we were grouped into six with four or five members each. We were assigned a hospital that we should either design from scratch or redesign. In my group, we were assigned the hospital in Palawan. The existing facility is designed for 50 beds. We were supposed to redesign it to accommodate 200 beds. We defended our design with flying colors. We were able to capture the tricky part of the problem, the solution that the panel expected from us.

We toured the Chong Hua Hospital in the last day, just before our graduation. It was the only opportunity for me to see the restricted areas of a hospital. Unfortunately only five people were allowed inside the operating rooms. They had to dress up in srcubs. Too bad there was no operations that time.

The lucky ones who were toured in the operating rooms.

The seminar was held in Ford's Inn, Banilad. At first I thougth that the place was too small and inappropriate. It turned out to be just right. I was even more pleasantly surprised that the owner is a good friend of my mom. In fact, last Christmas I asked my mom about the whereabouts of Mrs. Ford.

We were the fourth batch to attend the seminar. I actually signed up for the first batch, which was held in my hometown in Davao. It was ideal for me since I was in Davao at that time, but I got kicked out because the seminar was reserved for Mindanao architects. No matter. I enjoyed this batch anyway.

My friend who joined the first batch called me up a week before the seminar started. She announced that some foreigners approached her for a possible hospital project. She was happy that I will finally join the seminar. I will be able to assist her when the project pushes through.

It was one of the few seminars where the certificate of completion is like a college diploma. I was asked to give the "response" in behalf of my group during the graduation. I told everyone that the seminar gave us the possibility of collaborating with other professionals on hospital design matters. For me, as an educator, what I learned in that seminar will also echo in the halls of the college, either through lectures or through the design consultations especially in the undergraduate thesis.