Architectural and Management Strategies for the Design, Construction and Operation of Energy Efficient and Intelligent Primary Care Centers in Chile

Abstract

Primary care centers are establishments with elevated social relevance and high operational energy consumption. In Chile, there more than 628 family healthcare centers (CESFAM) have been built in the last two decades and with plans for hundreds more in the next few years. We revised the architecture, construction management and energy performance of five CESFAM centers to determine possible instances of overall improvement. Staff was interviewed, and state documents reviewed, which allowed the conceptualization of the architectonic and energy structure of the centers, as well as the process of implementation. At the same time, energy simulations were done for each one of the centers, controlling for different climates, construction solutions and orientations. Our study revealed that strategies employed by the primary healthcare centers in Chile have aided a progressive implementation of establishments with elevated costs and materialization times, as well as neglect for climatic conditions. These energy evaluations show relevant and consistent impacts of the architectural form and material conditions, especially in southern zones, demonstrating the need to work with shared knowledge resources such as BIM. There is a clear necessity to define technological, morphological and construction strategies specific to each climate zone in order to achieve energetically efficient and intelligent healthcare establishments.