First Prize: W(H)eal+ to care, to cure, to educate

Team: Halifi Alaa, Boudraa El Yazid, Abdelkabir Nanai

Jury: The winning submission W(H)eal+ is conceptually strong and flexible in many ways. It is well thought out and designed and addresses health equity and an immediate need. The proposal is a holistic approach formulated by an interdisciplinary group and is strong in all 4 criteria.

Casablanca is one of the biggest urban agglomerations in Africa. Today, the city has the highest number of cases of the coronavirus in the country, with more than 100.000 cases reported by mid-November. The virus outbreak in the city is a perfect example of a fragile healthcare system and the risks it poses. Big Healthcare facilities in the city are located downtown, this centralized health system, is hardly accessible from the peripheral neighborhoods of the city (slums), these slum neighborhoods are a concrete example of health inequity in the community.

(W)heal (Healing on wheels) is a spatial protocol, far from being an isolated health care facility, our response aims to redefine the way we think about health institutions in the future.

By using the old, yet abundantly available bus network system prevalent in the city, we offer an alternative use, capable of transforming as the need to an accessible, modular healthcare facility, Easy to assemble and quick to both deploy and relocate. (W)heal can be placed in several spots in the city like squares or parks, and urban voids, particularly in dense urban areas, scalable from small to mid-sized, especially in our situation, that also requires city level interventions: a network of healthcare facilities all over the city.