Community Health Center 

Across the strait from Singapore are the Indonesian Riau Islands, who are in a Free Trade Zone agreement with Singapore and Johur (Malaysia). For Batam, the main island, this agreement has meant almost explosive development since the early ‘90s, which has resulted in numerous industrial parks, more people moving to Batam for employment and the urban areas becoming cities with populations raising above a million.

 

This project looks at one of the first industrial parks, Batamindo, where the employees are young adults, mainly immigrating from other parts of Indonesia and over 50 % are women. Behind the large industrial halls are accommodation blocks that provides housing for the workers of the park. There is little social infrastructure and employees will leave on their spare time. In the event of an emergency or if an employee needs to seek medical care they have to travel to the next town, to the Puskesmas, the Indonesian government mandated health clinics.

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Except providing health care closer to home, this design proposal also would like to create a place for people to spend their spare time, meet friends and create new connections. The building is placed close to the small existing community centre to support it and strengthen the sense of a place to go and meet, essentially a down town or a market square. The clinical part with a small hospital including an emergency department and a small inpatient house is set close to the road intersection to be easily accessible from the whole industrial park, especially in case of emergencies.

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Between the community centre and the health clinic stretches a park to provide shade from the intense equatorial sun and provide more recreational spaces for the residents. Seeking medical care should be as easy as getting a cup a coffee and if you do need medical care you should still feel part of the community.