As the pressing need for fully functioning healthcare across Africa, and globally, continues to draw attention, healthcare providers are rising to the challenge. One such provider is Roha Health Inc, which has embarked on an ambitious, multimillion dollar project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. WSP is providing a broad range of engineering services, including civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, fire, electronics engineering, wet services and sustainability consulting.
When complete, the Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital will comprise of 350 beds with a total gross floor area of 40000m² and a centralised utilities block to house all engineering services.
The facility will firstly provide critically needed services to Ethiopian citizens in an affordable way. It is also intended to serve as a leading healthcare destination for Africa, where Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital will be a JCI accredited facility and will offer a range of advanced specialties and employ state of the art technology. Furthermore, it will consist of various centres of excellence including Oncology, Dialysis, dedicated Mother & Child floor, dedicated C-Section Theatre, Paediatrics, 8x Operating Theatres, 2x Cat labs etc.
Advance digital approach to design and delivery
WSP has long advocated that digitalisation has changed how projects are conceived and delivered. As a global leading professional services firm, it has been pushing the boundaries of BIM to create service offerings that include digital design, engineering analysis, 4D and 5D simulation, and asset management, and more.
Building on top of this, WSP recently established an Integrated Design Delivery (IDD) sector in response to continuing to advance on how its teams deliver multi-disciplinary projects. Adri Metzer, Director: Integrated Design Delivery (Sector Lead), WSP in Africa, says: “Our IDD team has been involved in the Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital project from the onset of the conceptualisation phases. While IDD serves as an internal design and project coordination function and does not replace the project management or principal agent role on a project, it certainly boasts significant value-added benefits through integrating technology, capturing data, and turn it into actionable insights for project teams and clients, alike.”
Sustainable to the core
A key factor in the construction of the Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital is that it will be built using sustainable building principles. The project is targeting an EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) certification, which focuses on three major areas of sustainability: energy, water and embodied energy of materials. To achieve the minimum predicted savings of 20% in each of the three areas – when benchmarked against a local standard hospital – WSP aims to engineer a facility that provides the highest standards of healthcare without wasting resources. As Addis Ababa lies in a temperate location, energy saving is a high priority, and both the design and construction of the facility will be executed with that in mind. This will be accomplished, firstly, through the careful selection of materials used in construction.
Hospital forest and park
To embody the concept of a healing environment, Roha Health Inc planted a forest comprising of approximately 12000 indigenous trees. This forest was planted in mid-2022 to be more than human scale grown when the hospital opens. This forest together with an accompanying park will offer a relaxing healing environment to hospital patients and visitors in a never seen before offering in Sub-Saharan Africa. The forest and park were designed by a team of specialist landscape designers led by Alaap Group (India) and use a special planting methodology called the Miyawaki method. This method allows forest to grow to levels traditional forest can reach in decades, with a few years.
Green power
Furthermore, the Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital will integrate water conservation methods and utilise alternative power sources. For example, water conservation will be implemented using low flow taps and showers, and all toilets will have a dual flush function. The main objective of water conservation throughout the hospital will be to reduce water consumption, and reuse water wherever possible.
From a power point of view, energy efficient light fittings will be installed throughout the hospital. Zoned lighting in patient wards will enable different levels of illuminance depending on the time of day. Furthermore, lighting in storerooms and areas that are not frequently occupied will be switched on and off using occupancy sensors. In the future, Roha intends to introduce renewable energy in the form of a solar PV system with battery energy storage to reduce its reliance on the grid.
Built for healing
A core tenet of sustainable construction is designing a building centred on the needs of those who will occupy it. This is even more relevant in a medical environment where healing is the primary focus.
“Sustainability is about so much more than green building principles, carbon footprints and the race to achieve net zero. Sustainability is also about addressing people’s needs, and that without improving access to care for rural communities, even the most spectacularly designed facilities can be deemed unsustainable,” says Jabulile Nhlapo, Director & Healthcare Lead, WSP in Africa.
Natural light has been shown to be a significant influence on healing, while ample fresh air levels ensure that air borne germs are diluted and extracted, providing healthier air. To leverage on Ethiopia’s favourable climate and introduce more fresh air, the facility will boast Ethiopia’s first Thermally Activated Building Structures (TABS) system. TABS uses the super structure as a thermal reservoir for comfort cooling and climate control by running chilled water at high temperatures through the building to increase the resultant coefficient of performance (COPs).
Patient care, and the quality of patients’ experience at Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital, is also crucial to the project. An integrated Hospital Information Systems (HIS) environment will be implemented to ensure patients have an efficient experience, while digital signage and screens throughout the facility will ensure both staff and patients have effective access to information. The facility will boast another first in Ethiopian patient care – an IP-based nurse call system.
The Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital is amongst a growing number of medical precincts being developed in Africa as we emerge from the global pandemic, which at its peak stretched medical services to their limits.
“The aim is that Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital, and other medical precincts like it, will reduce the number of Ethiopian citizens travelling out of the country, or continent, for major procedures and treatment. At the same time, being a regional centre of excellence and providing multi-speciality expertise, opens opportunities to attract more medical tourism through increased intracontinental specialist healthcare provision,” says Nhlapo.
“Roha Advanced Multi-Speciality Hospital sets a benchmark for mixed-use healthcare facilities in Africa. From concept to implementation, this development is underpinned by the vital role that access to health and medical care plays in the lives of communities,” concludes Nhlapo.
Facts and figures
- Client: Roha Health Inc and Roha Medical Campus PLC
- Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Status: Superstructure is currently under construction
General information
- Internationally accredited medical precinct
- Architect: A3 Architects
- Civil, Structural, MEPF and ELV Engineering Services: WSP
- Sustainability Consultant (Edge Certification): WSP
- Local Consultant: Bigar Builders and Developers PLC
- Cost Management: MACE YMR
- Main Contractor: Elmi Olindo & Co
- Landscape Consultant: Alaap Group.