Hui Yuan Koh

Healthy Ambulance Station

A project that focuses on using the concept of Design for Disassembly (DfD) and biophilic strategies to bring positive impacts to both the environment and paramedics.

What happen when a typical ambulance branch has reach their lifespan of 50 years? It will be renovated or demolished which produce large amount of waste. This is the linear economy model used in the building industry today. As building operational energy had been reduced by systems that are more efficient and higher performance over the years, the next step is to shift into circular economy to reduce building’s wastage at the end of their life. Part of the solution for that is the idea of Design for Disassembly (DfD).

DfD is a method to design buildings that could facilitate future changes and dismantlement for recovery of systems, components and materials, ensuring the building can be recycled as efficiently as possible at the end of its lifespan. There is 5 DfD principles which are: choosing reusable material; design building with its whole service life in mind; design building that can fits into ‘larger context’ system; reversible connections and planning for deconstruction.

The other concept that is closely related to DfD is Steward Brand’s Six ‘S’s – Site, Structure, Skin, Service, Space and Stuff. Each building layers correspond to a number of years which they will be replaced and it is important to design the overlapping of each layer so they could be accessed and changed easily to achieve the idea of design for disassembly.

A list of building components is created in this project, they could be used to design all ambulance stations but at the same time also has the opportunity to response to site specific condition and customization, giving each station their own unique identity. The ideal ways to put these building components together are using mechanical fixing and these connection could be developed and become a certain architecture language for the idea of DfD.

The biophilic designs are brought in to create place and environment that could reduce stress and improve the paramedics’ well-being. This is addressed by having sensory connections with the nature through visual, sound and touch.

By thinking and designing the ambulance branch(es) in relation to both micro and macro scale of environment, Healthy Ambulance Station(s) could be achieved.