In the midst of the world’s worst cholera outbreak in over a century, in partnership with Haitian health provider Les Centres GHESKIO, MASS Design Group designed the first permanent cholera treatment center in Haiti. The state-of-the-art facility incorporates an on-site wastewater treatment system to thwart recontamination of the water table. The facade was crafted by local metalworkers, and is custom-designed to provide appropriate
daylighting and ventilation. MASS also collaborated with local craftsmen to produce furniture tailored to the needs of cholera patients. The center serves a catchment area of 60,000 Haitians and treats up to 250,000 gallons of wastewater annually.

Decades of political instability and economic insecurity are spatially visible in Port-au-Prince. Sixty percent of the city’s three million people live in slums. Rainwater and any refuse collects in canals built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s, cutting deep gouges through the city and spilling into the Caribbean Sea.

The Building's program responds to three critical issues in the fight against Cholera.

1) Isolated Treatment: Safe, isolated treatment areas allow patients to be treated in a well-ventilated and comfortable environment. 2) Collect & Store: Rainwater is captured, filtered, and stored to use in treatment, as well as distributed to the community, ensuring a safe water supply. 3) Filter: Wastewater is filtered through an Anaerobic Baffled Reactor and re-infiltrated into the groundwater through a leach field that further cleans it.