The story
A courtyard hospital built around Roza Feleke’s return home.
Roza Feleke carried a long-standing goal from Bahir Dar to the United States and back again: create a hospital in her hometown where families could receive essential care. Journeyman International’s proposal translates that personal commitment into a maternity-focused facility organized around a protected courtyard and shaded two-story veranda. Patient rooms, clinical spaces, staff functions, and circulation face a common outdoor heart, bringing daylight and orientation into a complex program while sheltering movement from intense sun and seasonal rain.
The courtyard also creates a quieter environment for patients and families without compromising the separations needed for medical work. The project remains a proposal grounded in one person’s sustained relationship to place. Its architectural response is humane and practical: make care legible, bring nature close, and use shade and shared space to support healing without romanticizing the work a hospital must do.
