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Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
Students in a Texas A&M architecture-for-health studio unveiled designs for Rehab Nova, a multipurpose health, training and agriculture facility in southern Sudan Feb. 28 at the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture in College Station, Texas.
Students worked with project co-directors George J. Mann, holder of the Skaggs-Sprague Endowed Chair of Health Facilities Design, Mustafa Sharif, a native of Sudan who is pursuing a Ph.D. in urban and regional sciences, and B. Keith Cole, assistant director of administration and finance for the Borlaug Institute. The institute provides researchers, policymakers and university faculty from developing countries the ability to strengthen sustainable agricultural practices through scientific training and collaborative research opportunities.
“The Rehab Nova multipurpose facility, designed to be built in phases, includes land for agriculture, livestock, boarding houses, guest houses, labs, classrooms, physical rehabilitation, occupational therapy, vocational rehabilitation, offices and a health clinic for orphans, women and the physically disabled in the rural Sudanese communities of El Obeid and Bor,” said Mann. “The students have also designed the facility to be self sustaining, with solar collectors, windmills for power and energy and water collectors.”
Students researched Sudanese culture, climate, materials and methods of construction and incorporated their findings into the designs.
“My vision is that once we have a finished the design project, we will have a document, a physical product, we can present to donors,” said Sharif, one of four graduate students currently working for the Borlaug Institute.
For more information, contact Mann at gmann@arch.tamu.edu or 979.845.7856.
- Posted: Feb. 25, 2011 -
Contact: Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.
