An Australian-based multinational team from HDR won the ‘Breaking Through’ prize at the Healthcare Design Expo and Coference in Phoenix, Arizona for its Mobile Acute Services Hospital (MASH) project. 

Described by team member Ben Belson as a “beacon of hope”, the winning design pictures a series of pods that can be deployed in response to natural or man-made catastrophic events. 

In their design approach, the team embraced current and future technologies with the aim of improving humanitarian assistance. The result was an efficient and highly mobile system that has the ability to grow and assemble in the different ways required to respond as quickly and as flexibly as possible to different catastrophes across a variety of settings.

“Technology and architecture can help respond to different types of emergencies,” says MASH designer Margot Cougul. 

“MASH is an example of a solution that can quickly help people in need. And we don’t have something like that now.”

“I have always asked myself how I can contribute more as an architect,” says designer Mira Ebaf.

“And that’s why I am really glad that I was part of the MASH team because we all wanted to find a way to do things better and help save lives.”