Vrugnis's clinic

This report I present not in my words, but those of Heiras Nemaiklo, one of a very few humans to have visited the tkevsa on the island of Tokled.

Scribe Elan Straibala

My name is Heiras Nemaiklo, known at home as Tuvolok Heiras. I am a medic associated with the Allied Isles' Exploratory Corps. The following is based on my personal observations and experiences while stationed with the Tokled outpost from 2056-2059 Vol.
Although I was not officially part of the mission team, I enjoyed the rare freedom of joining their expeditions. Outpost staff are required to pass a rigorous physical evaluation to be posted across any of the Great Gaps, and as a consequence the role of outpost medic is more often than not a boring one. The staff having no predictable need of me, I was encouraged to work with the tkevsa as well--always, of course, on the condition that I could be called back at a moment's notice. I spent most days in the company of an accomplished tkevsa physician named Vrugnis.

Personal Objective

The architecture of the Coastal Plains Tkevsa has been cursorily described along with other aspects of their culture. In examining the resulting documentation, however, I observed that no single structure has been given detailed description. Of course I was primarily interested in Vrugnis's tools and treatments, but I was also fascinated by the building he worked in, and I am glad for the opportunity to present my impressions of it here.

Purpose / Function

Vrugnis does not live in his house the way we do in ours. The tkevsa, I learned, sleep where it is convenient, usually in the open regardless of weather. They build structures to protect things that would be damaged by sun, rain, wind, and debris. On this part of Tokled the wind is nearly constant for most of the year, varying only in intensity, and almost always from the northeast. Coastal Plains buildings have been designed with these conditions in mind for (as the tkevsa claim themselves) the half million or more years that they have been living there.
The clinic has no inner partitions; it is a single room from the entrance to the end. Vrugnis keeps his ingredients stored in pipe tree sections, and his concoctions in jars of metal or clay. Each container is stored in its own niche, a small individual curved shelf tilted to hold the container so that while it can't roll or fall, it is also easy to access. These ranks of niches are connected to each other and fixed between ribs. In the rear part of the clinic Vrugnis keeps his larger tools, such as an adjustable strengthening bed and the fire box that tkevsa culture still depends on.

Architecture

The most striking characteristic of Vrugnis's clinic--and of tkevsa construction in general--is how low it is. Two adult humans standing up can make eye contact, as I often did, across the highest arc of the roof. Vrugnis informed me that no building of any kind has lofts or stacked levels, which is not a surprise since the tkevsa body plan is incompatible with climbing ladders.
After the lack of height, the shape is distinctive. All the buildings that I saw were of similar design--long and rounded, with a mouth-like opening facing away from the prevailing wind. Although pipe tree does grow on Tokled, the tkevsa do not use it in construction. The framework is made of metal bent into large arcs and anchored in the ground, supporting the outer surface, connected by three metal ridges running the length of the clinic along the top and the two sides. Perhaps it's only because of my training, but it struck me as very like a ribcage, giving me the unsettling feeling of being inside a gigantic animal.
The skin of the clinic is a stiff but not rigid material. It appeared to be made of two layers sealed together, with the inner layer wrapping around the metal ribs and the outer layer providing an unbroken waterproof surface. The two layers split at the sides of the entrance, with the outer layer tilting forward to form an overhang and the inner layer tilting backwaard to form debris shields to either side of the entrance. The edges of the skin extend into the ground and are buried under a berm that surrounds the closed sides of the clinic. No part of the outer surface is flat, to prevent water and sand from accumulating.

Type

Clinic

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Secondary Features

A strange and entertaining side effect of the clinic's shape is that it behaves a little like a sound funnel. I was told by other outpost members that if I was in the back of the clinic I was to whisper, because if I tried to raise my voice to speak to someone outside the result was more of a roar than a shout.
Occasionally when there was nothing much going on, Vrugnis was kind enough to let us indulge in some shouting sessions for fun. Every time we did, I wondered what he thought of our game. Tkevsa seem to only speak when they are angry, and it must have been odd for us to insist on taking turns going all the way into the end of his clinic to scream at each other.
I'm aware that the mission team has been debating whether the acoustic effect is intended or not, but my opinion is that it is accidental. The structure amplifies sound, but also garbles it. If they wanted to, I'm sure the tkevsa could make a house that would channel sound much more cleanly and still be equally protective from the outside weather.