Courtesy of Insurgent American:
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The settlement's hospital building is set on a rise, a maze of angles
formed by sky lights, glass awnings, solar collectors, and brushed steel
columns. A Japanese architectural journal has named this 16-bed Gaviotas
hospital one of the 40 most important buildings in the world.
Inside, the air conditioning system is a blend of modern and ancient
technology. The underground ducts have hillside intakes that face north
to catch the breeze. Egyptians used this kind of wind ventilation to
cool the pyramids.
In the hospital kitchen, methane from cow dung provides the gas for
stove-top burners. But most of the cooking is done with solar pressure
cookers. Photovoltaic cells on the roof run a pump; solar heated oil
circulates around the stainless steel pot.
In a separate hospital wing, a large thatch ramada has been built for
llanos-dwelling Guahivo Indians. Instead of beds, these patients lie in
hammocks hung from wooden beams.
While the doctor treats the sick, their families stay with them because
the Guahivo believe that to wall someone off away from his people is the
ultimately unhealthy confinement. To earn their keep, the relatives tend
vegetables in an adjacent greenhouse - Lugari hopes that this greenhouse
will form the foundation for one of the finest medicinal plant
laboratories in the tropics.
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Gaviotas
Josh Ellis
September 10, 2006 8:49 PM
If you drive east out of Bogatá, Colombia into the eastern llanos of the
Vichada province — and you manage to avoid the paramilitary government
troops and the guerillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) who regularly battle in this empty place — you will come across a
small village of roughly 200 people. They’ll give you a free meal, and
if you ask they might show you their revolutionary designs for
power-collecting windmills, solar heating systems, and even their
hospital, which the Japanese Architectural Journal has designated one of
the 40 most important buildings in the world. There is no mayor here,
and no crime; no guns, and also (for some reason) no dogs.
http://www.insurgentamerican.net/2007/01/05/gaviotas/
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives//004910.html
