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Image: Sharon Davis Design
Image: Sharon Davis Design
Image: Sharon Davis Design
Image: Sharon Davis Design

Bayalpata Hospital
Achham, Nepal

Summary

Location Nepal
Coordinates 29° N, 81° E
Occupancy Type Medical Complex
Typology New Construction
Climate Type Subtropical (due to elevation)
Project Area 4,225 m2
Date of Completion 2019
Grid Connectivity Grid-connected
EPI 10 kWh/m2/yr
Architect Sharon Davis Design
Energy Consultants Transsolar KlimaEngineering

Bayalpata Hospital is a medical complex spread across a 7.5 acre hilltop in Achham, Nepal. It includes five medical buildings that house outpatient, inpatient, and antenatal units, along with emergency facilities for 70 beds, operation theatres, a pharmacy, a radiology lab, and other laboratory spaces. It also has an administration block with offices and a 60-seat canteen. Ten single-family houses and an eight-bedroom dormitory serve the hospital’s staff and their families.

Bayalpata Hospital is an architectural expression which is modest in scale and closely and intelligently responds to the site and location. Built from onsite materials and with low-tech construction methods, the complex has managed to minimize the cost-prohibitive transportation of building materials in this mountainous region, thus making it an impeccable zero carbon design.

Bayalpata Hospital, grid-hybrid solar hospital now generates surplus energy, due to the combination of passive design and a 100 kW solar array integrated into the south-facing roofs.

Image: Elizabeth Felicella
Image: Sharon Davis Design
Image: Sharon Davis Design
Image: Elizabeth Felicella
Image: Elizabeth Felicella
Image: Elizabeth Felicella

Bayalpata Hospital
Achham, Nepal

Climate Responsive Architecture and Strategies

The architecture maintains a vernacular scale through setbacks, gabled roofs, and low-cost heat-storing materials.

The complex includes low-rise one- and two-story structures organized around landscaped courtyards. The structures are heated and cooled passively (with the exception of the operating theatre and laboratories that are mechanically conditioned).

Heating, Cooling and Ventilation Design

The structures comprises of massive rammed earth walls with insulated roofs. Material with thermal mass retains daytime heat gain in winter, while keeping the interiors cool by preventing overheating during summer.

The cross-breezes through courtyards, aided by clerestory ventilation and ceiling fans, promote natural ventilation and improve comfort conditions.

Daylighting

Inside the buildings, tall narrow windows and south-facing series of glazed clerestories brings in natural daylight reducing the need for artificial lighting.

Image Sharon Davis Design
Image Sharon Davis Design
Image: Elizabeth Felicella
Image: Elizabeth Felicella

Bayalpata Hospital
Achham, Nepal

Material Palette

The building is rooted in its site through its use of onsite materials, making the hospital complex both low cost and more sustainable.

Soil from the site was mixed with 6% cement content to stabilize the earth for better durability and seismic resistance. Reusable, plastic lock-in-place formwork facilitated faster construction, while local stone was used for foundations, pathways, and retaining walls. Built-in furniture, exterior doors, and louvers were fabricated from local Sal wood.

Image: Elizabeth Felicella
Image: Elizabeth Felicella
Image: Elizabeth Felicella

Bayalpata Hospital
Achham, Nepal

A grid-connected, 100 kW photovoltaic system installed across all south-facing roofs is the foremost source of power.

A solar-powered water heating system installed heats upto 3,300 liters of water each day for both medical and staff use.

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