Manila, Philippines, July 31, 2021 – WTA Architecture and Design Studio is proud to announce that its the Emergency Quarantine Facilities (EQF) Project was shortlisted in the Completed Projects – Health Category.
The Emergency Quarantine Facilities (EQF) Project, a brainchild born out of ideas of ephemerality and impermanence, is a temporary structure aimed at augmenting the capacity of our hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Strategically planned to limit cross-contamination, patients and healthcare workers have designated entries and airflow is directed downwind from front to rear to prevent recirculation. The facility can be lengthened or shortened depending on need and can likewise be aggregated in modules to accommodate many more patients. The facility embodied speed, scalability and simplicity in its structure.
Prescient and purposeful, the pavilion consisted of an adaptable wall system that can transform into short-term relief spaces we might require in times of increasing uncertainty. Built with familiar and readily-available materials, the EQF is easily replicable and scalable not only in Metro Manila but throughout the country as well. William Ti, Jr. champions democracy in design, providing an open source link for the EQFs drawings in the hopes that communities take up the same agency and quick mobility that has been displayed since the conception of this project. After four months of actively building EQFs, WTA Architecture and Design Studio, together with its partners, friends and fellow advocates, accomplished 75 facilities across Mega Manila.
World Architecture Festival is the world’s largest international architectural event. It includes the biggest architectural awards programme in the world, dedicated to celebrating excellence via live presentations to delegates and international juries. In 2021, twelve big-picture architectural initiatives addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges have won the first of this year’s WAF Awards. The WAFX Award winners are all selected from entries to the Future Projects category in the WAF Awards Programme, for their ambition and scope.