Visionary Care
New Sight is a non-profit organisation delivering much-needed eye services in one of the most impoverished areas of the world. The need to establish a second more centrally located eye clinic that could reach and serve a broader community was identified. Located in the village town of Ouesso, the location of the New Sight Eye Clinic was buried in the Congo Jungle, characterised by inaccessibility and thick vegetation. The proposed development included a hospital with recovery rooms, staff accommodation, doctors houses, culturally inspired informal outdoor family kitchens where meals are prepared for loved ones, and jungle style halls housing the community.
When sight is restored lives are transformed, not only for patients but their families and the communities they live in.
The architectural design of the building creates a sensory experience that resonates with the sight impaired, fostering comfort through direct light, interrelated courtyards, and local building materials such as timber and Congolese patterned bricks. The recovery wards open up onto a network of internal planted courtyards that stimulate healing. The project rethinks the traditional institutional approach, offering design that is inclusive, interactive and empathetic, creating spaces that activate memory through the sensors and enable a navigation system that allows users to take ownership of their environment.
