EQF

design lead | completed in 2020 | design concept to design development and publication

In the first major lockdown of March 2020, a profound sense of urgency to contribute to the global fight against COVID-19 led to the first draft of the Emergency Quarantine Facility. The EQF is a proposed quick build meant to be used as an isolation area for unconfirmed cases. This small structure is a support facility for hospitals, built in the hopes of flattening the curve of infection among patients. All of the plans were published as open source designs to allow anyone to build or refine the concept.

In a span of two months, 75 EQFs were constructed through donation. This provided well over 1000 isolation beds for hospitals in need across the country.

Headlines and articles that helped circulate the open source construction plans and opened donations.

Recycled Polyethylene Sheets are used as sanitary curtains and dividers between patient spaces.

Considering the urgency to build, early iterations were completed with entirely donated materials from sponsors within the construction community.

Exploded Axonometric – Structural Timber, Palettes, Floor Substrate, 15-beds, Nurse Sanitation Stations, PE Sheets.

Having completed the Anthology Pavilion just a month prior, the pandemic provided the rare opportunity to immediately utilize the study and create a simplified base model for the EQF. The essential concepts in design echoed by the EQF are scalability to any size based on location or demand, substitutability of materials depending on availability and rapidity to build given the urgency of the situation.

Upon publishing the designs, there was an instantaneous response from the local construction sector. Monetary, as well as material donations, quickly came in greenlighting the prototype of the EQF. Other architecture firms published their own versions of the design. This, along with real-time feedback from construction teams on-site, prompted several revisions and improvements to the model and methodology for the builds.

Streamlined, one build with a team of 15 would take a total of 5 days to complete.

Hospitals could have unique requirements, such as outdoor swab test stations. RODRIGUEZ 2023 .

#WeBuildAsOne

On site adjustments to each facility were made depending on the quality of materials donated to every individual site.

A Light of Hope

— Recycling the concept of the Anthology Pavilion to play with plastic and its opacity.

Open Source Plans

— Designed in coordination with volunteer doctors, air circulation was a prime focus.

In a span of 2 months, 75 EQFs were built in hospitals across the country, funded by LGUs, foundations and individuals.

The largest EQF provided 120 beds. It was constructed within a military base as support to an adjacent General Hospital.

Nurse’s Station — This iteration was made to create a central hub for the nurses working across 4 EQFs and 120 beds.

The simple structure was built to provide a safe and dignified space for the isolation of patients during a time of crisis.