Salud Unidad aims to make future public healthcare in Tepito, Mexico City more accessible with informal architecture modules that are unitized inspired by the local Tianguis outdoor markets. Salud Unidad brings healthcare to a more human scale, and similar to the Tianguis encourages people to comfortably access their daily healthcare needs. Salud Unidad incorporates both traditional and modern treatment methods to cater to the diverse healthcare needs of the community. 

Salud Unidad incorporates micro-climates with a medicinal wellness garden in which residents can participate in their own treatment. Local plants are used as architectural elements to improve the air quality and provide medicinal resources. With the integration fabric and plants as architectural elements, Salud Unidad makes healthcare spaces more approachable. Learning from the collectiveness of
the local Tianguis, Salud Unidad argues that informal architecture is a more effective and approachable way to design healthcare spaces.

The Tianguis-inspired architecture creates a sense of familiarity, culture and fun within the healthcare space, allowing for a more holistic approach to healthcare delivery. The project’s design also considers the unique needs of the community, such as accessibility, sustainability, and flexibility. The unit-based design of the project and the use of fabrics allows for easy customization and adaptation as the healthcare needs of the community evolve over time.  

The use of fabric and the technique of wrapping and layering allows the control of privacy and publicness depending on the program. For example, treatment rooms have denser wrapping whereas the waiting areas are more sparse creating opennenes and publicness. Color plays a big role in the wayfinding of our project, so we designed a signage system so people in the neighborhood can easily identify each program based on its color and their needs.

The second component of the project is the medicinal wellness garden that will incorporate medicinal, oxygen producing and air purifying plants in which residents can participate in their own treatment while the plants help to improve the air quality. The existing building will be opened up and will provide access from four points. Following these access points, the garden will be laid out on a grid creating an efficient layout for the plant beds making it functional but also experiential.