Mbuya Dorcas Hospital, Baines Avenue

Dambudziko

A full clinical brief on a small corner stand: a casualty unit, separate ICU and HDU, six consulting rooms, a theatre, a small maternity and neonatal unit, dialysis and inpatient wards, together with freestanding departmental offices, all on a 1,200 square metre plot. The corner meets a high-speed dual carriageway, so every vehicle and ambulance movement has to be resolved on the Baines Avenue frontage, and the whole scheme has to meet the Zimbabwe HPA registration standard on a budget.

Zvatakaita

A compact three-storey plan organised around patient and staff flow. Emergency and critical care sit on the ground floor around a shared main waiting area, with maternity, the theatre, the neonatal unit and dialysis above, and the inpatient wards and administration on the top floor. Room sizes are held close to the HPA and international minimums, wet areas are stacked vertically to keep service runs short, and all access is taken off Baines Avenue. The concept was worked up as an interactive walkthrough so the client could understand and sign off the layout before design proper began.