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HSD - Peter Behrens School of Arts > HSD Design Project Nominated for Social Design Award
Peter Behrens School of Arts / Competition, Social Design Award
07.10.2019

HSD Design Project Nominated for Social Design Award

Designing habitation for the future – approx. 150 ideas compete to win the Social Design Award. Only ten projects made it to the short list – and the design project House for Midwives, initiated at the HSD Faculty of Architecture of Peter Behrens School of Arts, is one of them. You can vote here for the project to win the award.

Approx. 50 HSD students have spent several semester breaks designing and building a home for midwives in Ghana – working together with American students, German construction trainees and pupils from Ghanaian vocational schools. They completed their project in 2017.

The village Havé Etoe is located in the middle of the jungle, close to the border to Togo. The birth and medical centre is the core of the village community and provides medical care for the entire region. This is why there is an increasing demand for trained midwives. However, in the past, it was not possible to recruit enough qualified personnel due to a lack of housing space. Meeting Bismarck e.V. association in Cologne has identified the issue and worked for years to improve the situation.

The result of the design project is an environmentally friendly house, in which Ghanaian and German midwives and trainees can live, work, learn and teach in close proximity to the birth centre. They offer courses for mothers as well as pre- and post-natal support.

Background:
The ‘Design-Build-Programm’ at Peter Behrens School of Arts (PBSA) at HSD tries out innovative learning methods and integrates practical aspects into the theoretical curriculum.

Designing and building, living and working together with different universities, midwives and village people in Ghana puts the concept ‘build together – learn together’ into practice. The programme helps participants take responsibility and act independently. It creates a collective social process.

Who was involved?
Students from bachelor’s and master's programmes of the Faculties of Architecture and Design/PBSA at HSD and the Faculties of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta and Hochschule Koblenz, local vocational school Havé Tech, consulting engineering services Transolar Stuttgart and Imagine Structure Frankfurt/Cologne, Meeting Bismarck e.V. association Cologne, Engagement Global Düsseldorf.

 

Photos: private source​

Hebammenhaus in Havé 2
Hebammenhaus in Havé.
Hebammenhaus in Havé 4
Fotos: privat