Used industrial shipping containers have been up-cycled into a health clinic to treat women and children in the rural community of Baní in the Dominican Republic. The 8x20ft (2.44×6.1m) steel boxes, donated by Triton Containers, will be transformed into a clinic that is expected to be completed by Spring 2010.

The design idea originates with Containers to Clinics (C2C), a Boston-based non-profit organization that helps to provide health care to the world’s poorest communities by creating inexpensive small clinics from recycled shipping containers. The C2C’s mission is to provide primary care to women and children in vulnerable, under-served populations. Planned clinical services will include pregnancy, labor and delivery and post-partum care, newborn care, vaccinations, treatment of childhood illnesses and communicable diseases, reproductive health education, stabilization and referrals.

C2C has developed a new clinical model for health service delivery. They design portable shipping containers into health clinics with high-quality equipment, medicines, and medical staff. These clinics are designed with diagnostic, lighting, and climate-control technologies appropriate for low-resource settings and reflect local cultural traditions and health education needs.

This program provides benefits for communities in the Caribbean and other regions but also helps urban youth in the United States. C2C has teamed up with YouthBuild Boston to help youth in Boston’s high schools by teaching “resource-constrained architecture with high social impact.” The Designery is YouthBuild Boston’s afterschool urban architecture workshop for students aged 14-18 who are “commissioned” by clients with real-world design challenges. C2C is this semester’s new design client.

For full articles, see http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2010/1/3/34365/Shipping-container-clinics-operate-in-Dominican-Republic, http://www.containers2clinics.org/, and http://www.misstropolis.com/index.php/spirit/article/containers-2-clinics/