ARCH321 Lecture 1: Hospitals and Healthcare Buildings Overview

Health, Illness, Wellbeing, and Architectural Design

• The primary focus of the theme is on how spaces are designed to impact health, illness, and wellbeing.
• Considerations of health, illness, and wellbeing are discussed in relation to healthcare buildings, hospitals, and medical institutions.

Key Aims and Actors

• The main aims of healthcare design are to create buildings that promote healing, comfort, and efficiency.
• Actors involved in healthcare design include architects, healthcare professionals, and policymakers.

Architectural Styles and Examples

• The Royal Masonic Hospital in London, UK (1931-3) was designed in the Modernist style.
• Early 20th-century hospital and healthcare buildings were characterized by the use of segregation, compartmentalization, and isolation.
• The University College Hospital in London, UK (1897-1906) was designed by architect Alfred Waterhouse.
• Sampson Kempthorne's 'Hexagon Plan' referred to a type of hospital design.
• The Medical School Museum at St Thomas's Hospital in London, UK (1847) was used for educational purposes.
• The Hôtel Dieu in Paris, France was proposed in 1788 as a design for a hospital.
• Alfred Waterhouse was known for his designs of hospitals and healthcare buildings.
• The Royal Southern Hospital in Liverpool is now used by the University of Liverpool.
• The Infirmary in Blackburn, UK (1858-65) was characterized by its use of Gothic Revival architecture.
• The source for information on English Hospitals from 1660-1948 is unknown (assuming this is a question from the original text).

Other Key Facts

• The architects of the Operating theatre in Admission Hospital, Fairfield Hospital, Stotfold, Bedfordshire, UK (1934-6) were unknown (assuming this is a question from the original text).
• Contemporary examples of healthcare architecture can be found in various locations worldwide.