I feel contributors will be more apt to chime in with their two cents if the discussion is broken down into small manageable tit bits of information. It seems that it would also help those coming in later in the discussion to see which issues are most talked about—allowing them to get up to speed quicker on what the community is prioritizing verses trying to wade through long and meandering posts. Let me know what you think about this. Similar to Twitter, we could in the future, perhaps limit the length of individual posts and replies—forcing people to be terse and concise with their comments.

This agriculture tradition of growing just a single crop seems to stem from the fact that most of the rainfall occurs during the summer monsoon season. For eight months of the year, there is a negative moisture index. (That is, there is less rainfall than evaporative loss.) There is little or no infrastructure for doing irrigation. But with the addition of irrigation infrastructure (the water itself is available year-round from the rivers), the climate in the district would support year-round agriculture. Average temperatures in the coldest part of the year are similar to San Diego, where winter is the best time of the year to grow many vegetables (beets, broccoli, cabbage, chard, peas, greens, onions and turnips being some examples). Achham is closer to the Equator than San Diego is, so there is at least as much sun. Specifically, The Map of Potential Vegetation of Nepal indicates that the climate of the Achham valleys is suitable for growing winter potatoes, which presumably (because they were used as a sample crop in the study) is a crop already familiar to the population.

The major reason the hill dwellers don't make better use of the their agricultural potential is lack of knowledge about the possibilities. This is where the training role of the tele-medicine facility comes into play. Water is available (free) on the site. With Internet access to information on suitable crop varieties and techniques, along with a demonstration garden that they pass on their way to the facility, people would see how they could improve their lives by growing crops year-round, and/or by growing more appropriate varieties of the crops they already grow.

Sources:
Nepal Agricultural Policy and Strategies for Poverty Alleviation and Food Security (http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/ae898e/ae898e00.htm)
The Map of Potential Vegetation of Nepal (http://www.forestrynepal.org/the_map_of_potential_vegetation_of_nepal)
Documentary of HIV in Far Western Nepal (http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-8155873131923192292&hl=en)

Since the site is sloped, we can position the tank separate from the building, as high up the hill as needed to get a desirable water pressure in the buildings.

More recently, architects have showed interest in using Gabion walls for building structures. However, this seems seems to be very experimental. The examples I found actually depend on a large amount of structural steel, in addition to the gabion baskets. For example, the Dominus Winery in California (http://flickr.com/search/?q=gabion+walls), which appears to have gabion walls, is actually supported by steel tubes, with the gabion baskets being a skin thin enough to let light into the building. (http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi?acc_num=ucin1148267772)

The Gabion wall industry itself does not seem to be promoting Gabion walls as a suitable material for building structures. (See, for example, www.gabions.net/downloads/Documents/MGS_Design_Guide.pdf, http://www.maccaferri-usa.com/gabion.aspx and www.weld-mesh.com/gabions.htm,http://www.hy-ten.co.uk/pages/downloads.htm )

The EERA (Earthquake Engineering Reconstruction Authority) of Pakistan, in their publication GUIDELINES FOR EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT CONSTRUCTION OF NON-ENGINEERED RURAL AND SUBURBAN MASONRY HOUSES IN CEMENT SAND MORTAR IN EARTHQUAKE AFFECTED AREAS (http://www.erra.gov.pk/Reports/Construction_Guidelines_26may06.pdf), does have a section on the use of Gabion walls. In section 2.2.2, Gabion walls, they say "It is necessary to have a safe space between the down stream retaining wall and the house. DO NOT USE THIS WALL AS A HOUSE WALL. " (emphasis in the original). I have not been able to find any other mention of gabion walls in various reference works on building structures primarily with non-engineered materials.

Computer electronics can be designed with different temperature operating range requirements, but 10 - 35 degrees Centigrade, with 20 - 80% percent humidity is typical. Assuming the center has thick adobe walls and protection against radiative loss to the night sky in winter, maintaining 10+ degrees in the winter should be easy just by keeping the server closet closed during normal operation. The heat generated from the servers themselves should keep the temperatures well over the minimum even if the building as a whole drops below that temperature. (Which I don't think it will.)

Maintaining adequately low temperature and humidity in the summer is going to be much more difficult. Substantial ventilation is going to be needed in the server closet to draw off the generated heat. But since the outside temperatures routinely routinely exceeds 35 degrees, simply blowing air over the servers is not going to suffice.

My thought is that we should have the floor of the building raised off the ground, with a substantial volume of air that is shielded by the building. If the soil at the site is conducive to making the adobe bricks, we could excavate the ground under the future building as part of the brick making process. The effect should be that during the heat of the day, the air underneath the building should be substantially cooler than the ambient air, and we can draw it up through a vent in the server room floor, pass it over the equipment and then vent it out through the roof.

I think this should help mitigate the humidity issue as well. If the ambient humidity is very high, the cool air accumulating under the building at night will reach 100% relative humidity and some of the the moisture will condense out. (Think of a cave.) When the air is heated as it passes through the server closet, its relative humidity will drop, so that it can keep the electronics adequately dry. Essentially, the process should act as a dehumidifier, leaving the extracted water in the cellar.

video: http://sketchcast.com/view/y4q8BS1/

In addition to the model of the buildings we are designing, I think we should start a model of the larger site, showing how the new buildings relate to the old, and modeling other aspects of the site. These aspects might include:

• The existing clinic building.
• A plaza for village gatherings too large to hold in the community room.
• Trees, for passive cooling in the summer.
• Areas designed for activities directly related to the health clinic, such as a place where people coming from a long distance could rest or cook a meal.

Ideally, we would have enough land that we could model the site and building together. Given what exists now, though, I suggest we create a separate branch of the Wikitree, joined as close to the trunk as possible, for site designs. The scale of the site design model would be much smaller than the building design. Of course, the site design and building design are not at all independent, so maybe someone else will have a better suggestion.

Some strategies for earthquake-resistant vernacular architecture (extracted and condensed from http://www.world-housing.net/uploads/vernacular_construction.pdf) are

1. Selection of materials, in particular the incorporation of ductile materials to avoid out-of-plane collapse. In this case, timber and bamboo seem to be the locally available options in this respect.
2. Construction with robust architectural forms, i.e. regular floor plan (circular being best, followed by square) and uniform openings (small and well-spaced).
3. Construction with resilient structural configuration, such as efficient connections between roof, wall, floor and foundation.
4. Construction that reduces seismic forces, such as low-rise, with lightweight roof.

It would seem that designing for construction with bamboo and adobe (also known as green, or unfired) brick would be a good starting point. Probably not coincidentally, these are the materials used by Habitat for Humanity for houses in Eastern Nepal (http://www.habitat.org/intl/ap/141.aspx). Large bamboo appropriate for construction seems to be common in Western and mid-Western Nepal. (http://www.bioversityinternational.org/publications/Web_version/572/ch29.htm

A space able to:

-contract or retract: Temporary extension
(i.e. extension of an indoor space by means of added temporary structure)
-be added on: permanent addition
(i.e. -a side of the building could be designated as the ‘add on’ side, meaning that its exterior skin could be easily removed for more space to be constructed)
-be porous: refering to the perceptual and/or physical inside/outside threshold
(i.e. windows, doors, archways, play of natural light)

One could see all spaces mentioned in the program having one if not all of the above. Please feel free to elaborate on this topic.

http://www.studiowikitecture.com/all_designs.php5

Note that most of these overlap with the aims and goals of OAN/AMD

· Appropriate design to the area, using local labor and materials where possible

· Integrated physically and aesthetically with existing hospital structures. In fact, ideally, the design would be of a innovative renovation or addition of an existing structure. This would likely be the most cost-effective way to add on telemedicine services. While a true renovation may not be possible given the guidelines of the competition, an innovative addition should be achieveable within the guidelines.

· Adaptable for multiple and unforeseen uses

· Energy-efficient for all seasons

· Structure with the small earthquake

· Design is able to accommodate and integrate with alternative energy sources well

· Willingness on the part of the design team to travel to Achham for at least one site visit using funds from the design team and not from the OAN/AMD funds.

· Interest and dedication of the design team to stay engaged in the project long-term, with the understanding that “sustainable design” cannot be achieved without sustainable intellectual commitment post-design and construction.

1.The building site has not being secured(which is why the site info is so vague)

2.There will be a site visit at the beginning of next month in which more site details will be acquired and provided to participants.

3.Deadline will be moved to late February.

4.She told me that, different from previous AFH competitions (where the designs are reviewed in terms of ease of execution and practicality), this one is a bit more conceptual. Practicality and ease of execution still a plus.

Some factor’s that help define the concept:
1. Alpine climate-consistent temperatures(25 degrees difference thru out the year), - monsoon season:
landslides, floods, wind and thunderstorms, etc.
2. Epidemical concern-the ability of the facility to accommodate larger amount of patients and for the space to
adapt to different medical crisis.
3. Current AIDS epidemic-testing centers
4. Energy efficiency a most
5. Basic building materials- stone and stucco, wood for partitions and building envelop, lots of screens walls
between spaces, zinc or concrete as roofing material.

Program analysis based on concept:

Medical components-zones: TOTAL 1140sf (60% of the program)

1. support zone-200sf
The support zone will house all important information and tools necessary for the successful performance of the
telemedicine clinic/center. Its structural integrity is more important that its spatial resiliency. Because if this it
could be interpreted as the structural spine/anchor of the facility. It needs to be able to deal with all weather
changes.
-server room -50sf
-pharmacy & storage of important patient information -100sf-expandable/resilient
-mechanical equipment and photovoltaic system-50sf

2. clinic zone-750sf
The clinic zone will house all medical spaces used by tenants. It resiliency is more important that it’s structural
integrity. It needs to be able to deal with all weather changes although some areas could be
retractable/collapsible when weather is at its worst.
-counseling rooms 2 @-50sf= 100sf expandable/resilient
-administrative office-150sf- expandable/resilient
-meeting/breakroom-150sf -expandable/resilient
- telemedicine/training room-200sf -expandable/resilient
-meeting space for health professionals-150sf -expandable/resilient

Total:950sf x 20%(circulation)=1140sf

Community components: TOTAL 800 sf(40% of the program)

-community library-300sf- expandable/resilient-consider locating a portion of the library in the support
zone.
-Computer lab-200sf -expandable/resilient
-Gathering-300sf -expandable/resilient

Also, what is the most practical construction material for the floors, walls, roofing and doors?