Manuel Herz Architects and Iwan Baan

The Many Lives of Tambacounda Hospital shows the multiple dimensions, economies, materialities, and narratives in which the Tambacounda Hospital, currently under construction in Senegal, is embedded. It aims to uncover and illuminate the many processes and lives a building embodies, precipitates, and connects to. The installation asks questions such as: Who are the stakeholders in the design process? Who are the contractors and construction workers? Who are the users? Where does the money come from and where does it go? How is the project used over its lifetime? What impact does it have on the community? What other projects does the hospital trigger? What does the planning application process reveal about the culture of administration? How can the production of architecture be a form of research and inquiry?
As it presents the many lives of the hospital and gives voice to central figures such as Magueye Ba - the general contractor who is also a medical practitioner -, this project emphasizes that the time has come to understand architectural projects such as the Tambacounda Hospital as central to architecture’s mission. This hospital project should not be seen as architecturally marginal, but instead as demonstrating and uncovering processes that are fundamental to our discipline as a whole.

Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Xenia Vytuleva-Herz, Matthias Persson, Edouard Detaille, Allegra Itsoga, Jonas Popp, Alexis Schulman