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[The hospital: reality and proposable future]
A E Cardinale1, M V Torregrossa
1Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Mediche e Medicina Legale, Sezione di Scienze Radiologiche, Università degli Studi di Palermo e Preside della Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia.
Insights
This study traces hospital evolution from medieval religious centers to modern, patient-centered facilities. It highlights shifts in architecture and function, reflecting changing medical practices and societal views on healthcare.
Area of Science:
- Medical History
- Architectural History
- Sociology of Health
Context:
- Hospitals evolved from religious charitable institutions in the Middle Ages.
- Renaissance saw hospitals integrate into urban centers, focusing on medical practice over spiritual aid.
- 18th-century hospitals adopted functional, departmentalized structures, moving towards specialized care.
Purpose:
- To provide a historical overview of hospital development from the Middle Ages to the present.
- To analyze the architectural and functional transformations of hospitals.
- To understand the changing role of hospitals in society and healthcare.
Summary:
- Medieval hospitals, often within religious sites, featured symbolic architecture.
- Renaissance and Enlightenment periods introduced scientific knowledge, leading to functional designs and departmentalization.
- Modern hospitals are increasingly horizontal, integrated into urban landscapes, and designed as welcoming environments for patients.
Impact:
- Demonstrates the deep connection between societal values, scientific advancement, and healthcare infrastructure.
- Illustrates the architectural evolution driven by changing medical paradigms.
- Provides insights into the enduring quest for improved patient care and hospital design.
Abstract:
In this work we run over hospital history from Middle ages to the present time. Hospitals were charitable institutions in fact they rise inside monasterys, churches or castles with an architecture in modum crucis as a symbolic expression of Christ crucifix. During Renaissance, new scientific Knowledges and the need of technical assistance in a suitable place, lead to a new kind of hospital included into the functional centres of the city were medical practice takes the places of spiritual assistance. In XVIII century hospital is like a "human diseases botanical garden" divided into departments with a circular structure in conformity with a functional model of control. To exceed the isolation of single room, rectangular rooms born with a radially arrangement. At the end of 700's born the pavilions structures typical of hospitals until half 900's when the "monobloc" take place. Today hospital becomes horizontal, include in the context of the city, with hall as a big hotel and with trading centres in accordance with Renzo Piano model and with a new vision of hospital as a welcome place were the patient is a guest to treat as a person of consequence.
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