Emergency Children'S Surgery Hospital. L'ospedale dei bambini, Entebbe, Uganda

"When I met Gino Strada to talk about the project, he first said to me" I want to build a shockingly beautiful hospital!". We immediately got in tune, because I have always thought that ethics and aesthetics are two sides of the same coin. This hospital will be a model of medical excellence, environmental sustainability, energy independence and harmonious distribution of space. We want to use the resources of the earth, water and the sun, the best goals of modernity, the real ones. The hospital will be built on the shores of Lake Victoria, the vegetation will be the horizon for the little guests, the trees as a metaphor for the healing process ". The book tells the story of how the Center of Excellence in Pediatric Surgery was born. Renzo Piano tells how the approach to sustainability was also used in the design choices, by applying the same construction principles of the traditional houses but in an innovative way. The structure was in fact built by excavating earth and build the load-bearing walls in raw earth with the ancient pisé technique. The hospital also has a system of approximately 2,500 photovoltaic panels on the roof, which will meet part of the energy needs. As in the other Emergency 's hospitals, there is also a garden with 350 trees: greenery is an important element for the recovery and healing of patients, as evidenced by recent international medical studies. Like all monographs edited and published by the Renzo Piano Foundation, the volume was made by using unpublished material from the archives: sketches, models, construction documents, direct testimonies of the protagonists of this project.