PANDEMIC
The vastness universe is built upon microscopic particles. Life on Earth is little more than a series of perfect combinations of these particles, and death on Earth is a result of the destruction or incapacitation of the most vital of these particles.
Often, disease and death grow from the inside outward and go from microscopic to MEGA. The focus of this proposal is the MEGA effect of something that is entirely microscopic. It is a storm that arises from inside of people, from a cellular level, and overtakes their bodies and eventually claims their lives, and on the cellular level it spreads throughout the population, claiming lives in masses. Can architecture take the place of dead white blood cells to help fight the AIDS pandemic?
What is the nature of the problem?
A problem can't be addressed before it is defined.
pan·dem·ic (păn-dĕm'ĭk) n. Epidemic over a wide geographic area.
Geographically, the spread of AIDS over the past 50 years
occurred this way:
There is one company that produces the ingredients that go into every medicine used to treat AIDS: this is GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), producing the two compounds zadovudine and lamiduvine. Shown in blue below, these drugs breathe new live back into significant portions of the AIDS population, replacing them into the population with their functional lives extended for what is often ten to twenty years.
The GSK corporate network and the populations it significantly helps.
The drug-producing plants are shown as towers, and the shipping paths radiate out from each tower. The problem is that the drugs are produced in some locations, and sold to other locations, and areas where the translucent mesh exceeds both the blue and white meshes, more than 50% of the infected population is not receiving treatment.
In the mappings below, the treated areas and the plants located within them are moved into a gigantic MEGAcontinent. The plants that are left outside of this MEGAcontinent are the plants located in areas that do not receive enough treatment.
ZOOM IN. What does it mean to be part of the infected population? This video from Google shows the AIDS virus attacking a white blood cell. The stills below explain what is happening in the video.
These host cells travel through the blood stream and repeat the process. The drugs containing lamiduvine and zadovudine slow and in some cases incapacitate the host cells, which in turn significantly slows the spread of the virus throughout the body. This can also slightly decrease the chances of a medicated patient spreading AIDS to another member of the population.
Architecture can parallel this strategy.
antiPANDEMIC
If architecture was the cure for AIDS, what would it be?
When AIDS can spread more slowly in the body, it prolongs the life of the patient. If the patient's life is prolonged, it is more likely that patient will be alive when a cure is found. The important function here is for the spread of medication to occur quickly and efficiently, and inhibit the spread of AIDS in the population.
Taking cues from some visionaries of the 60's, with their flexible, transportable, and extremely MEGA architectural ideas, Archigram's Plug-In City seems an appropriate concept to apply to a counter-infection. The Plug-In City is a mega civilization made up of tiny parts which travel and function to benefit this science-fictional society as a whole. This is much like how the AIDS infection functions, and much like the small, virus-fighting lymphocytes in the body function.
These collages show the drawings of the Plug-In City in combination with the GSK mappings.
The idea is this: a GSK manufacturing plant releases a series of smaller cells to be transported to the most remote corners of the planet, those areas in dire need of treatment but which do not receive the treatment currently. Like Archigram's proposal, these would be silos of manufacturing plants and they would infiltrate networks of healthcare and transportation.
MEGAhealth
The proposal is a hierarchical network of the GlaxoSmithKline company's AIDS division. From the headquarters (located in London) comes knowledge, technology, and the patent on the drugs. All of these are intangible and immaterial. These things reach the manufacturing sites, hubs, where the immaterial network is materialized. Cells are constructed here, as well as the drugs and equipment to go in them. Hospital rooms, information cells, AIDS pharmacies and AIDS testing supplies are all made and contained into the cells.
MEGAhealth can be applied in virtually any architectural, geographical, or sociopolitical situation. It is to be versatile and flexible and free.
The cells contain three separate weapons to fight the virus: medicine, medical care and equipment, and education on prevention.
1. Cape Town, South Africa is already a site for a GSK manufacturing plant, but it is a good hub because it has the best resources in the southern region of Africa. The transportation and healthcare infrastructures are well in tact. There is a large amount of class separation, as in most cities in Africa, but MEGAhealth is made to go anywhere, for anyone. Cape Town will serve as the hub for these purposes.
2. Mesaru, Lesotho is the capital of Lesotho. It is small and the poverty level is high, not to mention a very high demand for AIDS treatment. It is very accessible - with a main railroad, a river, and an international airport. The healthcare system is out of date and low on funding.
3. Omusati, Namibia is an area in the wildest part of Namibia. There is a freight road that passes through it, crossing the entire country's width and connecting Omusati to a port. AIDS is prevalent in this area, and there is one missionary-run hospital with very out-dated technology.
Here are the major transportation networks within these areas and between them.
Hospitals are marked as circles in the cities. There are also examples of how the physical portion of the network infects the population.
Capetown.
The basic concept behind the hubs is a structural that manufactures and contains these cells and releases them to the rest of the world to perform their various functions.
This virtual meganetwork - the bloodstream on which the treatment travels - is made up of the tiny components of modern transportation modes.
The cells can be placed elsewhere in the hub city.
Along these transportation networks, they can travel to the other areas that the hub city must serve.
Maseru.
Omusati.
These cells are the small parts of the whole: particles causing a MEGA effect. In the same way that AIDS conquers the body, infiltrates a population and spreads across the globe, the GSK network can conquer a city and spread as well - spreading preventional knowledge, treatment, and care and comfort to those who cannot currently benefit from these things.
Fight PANDEMIC with an antiPANDEMIC.
Geographically, the spread of AIDS over the past 50 years
occurred this way:
Shown below is AIDS in the world as of 2006. The translucent mesh represents the population density in those particular areas of the world, and the white mesh under it represents a density of the population unaffected by AIDS.
The AIDS victims appear as negative space.
The AIDS victims appear as negative space.
There is one company that produces the ingredients that go into every medicine used to treat AIDS: this is GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), producing the two compounds zadovudine and lamiduvine. Shown in blue below, these drugs breathe new live back into significant portions of the AIDS population, replacing them into the population with their functional lives extended for what is often ten to twenty years.
The GSK corporate network and the populations it significantly helps.
The drug-producing plants are shown as towers, and the shipping paths radiate out from each tower. The problem is that the drugs are produced in some locations, and sold to other locations, and areas where the translucent mesh exceeds both the blue and white meshes, more than 50% of the infected population is not receiving treatment.
In the mappings below, the treated areas and the plants located within them are moved into a gigantic MEGAcontinent. The plants that are left outside of this MEGAcontinent are the plants located in areas that do not receive enough treatment.
ZOOM IN. What does it mean to be part of the infected population? This video from Google shows the AIDS virus attacking a white blood cell. The stills below explain what is happening in the video.
These host cells travel through the blood stream and repeat the process. The drugs containing lamiduvine and zadovudine slow and in some cases incapacitate the host cells, which in turn significantly slows the spread of the virus throughout the body. This can also slightly decrease the chances of a medicated patient spreading AIDS to another member of the population.
Architecture can parallel this strategy.
antiPANDEMIC
If architecture was the cure for AIDS, what would it be?
When AIDS can spread more slowly in the body, it prolongs the life of the patient. If the patient's life is prolonged, it is more likely that patient will be alive when a cure is found. The important function here is for the spread of medication to occur quickly and efficiently, and inhibit the spread of AIDS in the population.
Taking cues from some visionaries of the 60's, with their flexible, transportable, and extremely MEGA architectural ideas, Archigram's Plug-In City seems an appropriate concept to apply to a counter-infection. The Plug-In City is a mega civilization made up of tiny parts which travel and function to benefit this science-fictional society as a whole. This is much like how the AIDS infection functions, and much like the small, virus-fighting lymphocytes in the body function.
These collages show the drawings of the Plug-In City in combination with the GSK mappings.
The idea is this: a GSK manufacturing plant releases a series of smaller cells to be transported to the most remote corners of the planet, those areas in dire need of treatment but which do not receive the treatment currently. Like Archigram's proposal, these would be silos of manufacturing plants and they would infiltrate networks of healthcare and transportation.
MEGAhealth
The proposal is a hierarchical network of the GlaxoSmithKline company's AIDS division. From the headquarters (located in London) comes knowledge, technology, and the patent on the drugs. All of these are intangible and immaterial. These things reach the manufacturing sites, hubs, where the immaterial network is materialized. Cells are constructed here, as well as the drugs and equipment to go in them. Hospital rooms, information cells, AIDS pharmacies and AIDS testing supplies are all made and contained into the cells.
MEGAhealth can be applied in virtually any architectural, geographical, or sociopolitical situation. It is to be versatile and flexible and free.
The cells contain three separate weapons to fight the virus: medicine, medical care and equipment, and education on prevention.
1. Cape Town, South Africa is already a site for a GSK manufacturing plant, but it is a good hub because it has the best resources in the southern region of Africa. The transportation and healthcare infrastructures are well in tact. There is a large amount of class separation, as in most cities in Africa, but MEGAhealth is made to go anywhere, for anyone. Cape Town will serve as the hub for these purposes.
2. Mesaru, Lesotho is the capital of Lesotho. It is small and the poverty level is high, not to mention a very high demand for AIDS treatment. It is very accessible - with a main railroad, a river, and an international airport. The healthcare system is out of date and low on funding.
3. Omusati, Namibia is an area in the wildest part of Namibia. There is a freight road that passes through it, crossing the entire country's width and connecting Omusati to a port. AIDS is prevalent in this area, and there is one missionary-run hospital with very out-dated technology.
Here are the major transportation networks within these areas and between them.
Hospitals are marked as circles in the cities. There are also examples of how the physical portion of the network infects the population.
Capetown.
The basic concept behind the hubs is a structural that manufactures and contains these cells and releases them to the rest of the world to perform their various functions.
This virtual meganetwork - the bloodstream on which the treatment travels - is made up of the tiny components of modern transportation modes.
The cells can be placed elsewhere in the hub city.
Along these transportation networks, they can travel to the other areas that the hub city must serve.
Maseru.
Omusati.
These cells are the small parts of the whole: particles causing a MEGA effect. In the same way that AIDS conquers the body, infiltrates a population and spreads across the globe, the GSK network can conquer a city and spread as well - spreading preventional knowledge, treatment, and care and comfort to those who cannot currently benefit from these things.
Fight PANDEMIC with an antiPANDEMIC.
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