Hospital Architecture: Foundation, Funding and Form: The body natural as well as the body politic stands indebted¹

Abstract

The term “hospital” was traditionally a broad category, encompassing almshouses, public foundations, infirmaries dedicated to specific conditions, and asylums for the care and containment of psychiatrically disordered people. Michel Foucault pinpointed modern hospital origins at the end of the eighteenth century, yet infirmaries had existed from antiquity, so this chapter examines their architectural reinvention from caring religious foundations to agents of scientific cure. New perceptions of social problems—endemic disease, infant abandonment, or mental illness—required innovative approaches. Starting in seventeenth‐century France, hospital design was increasingly influenced by contemporary understandings of illness. As epidemiological knowledge was constructed and shared internationally, such medico‐scientific discourse shaped designs. Additionally, in Europe's maritime empires, warfare and alien environments combined with the commercial, strategic, and diplomatic imperative for healthy mariners, stimulating clinical innovation. These Enlightenment hospitals became normalized as foci of corporate philanthropic activity, morally legitimating emerging urban elites thereby aiding the construction of shared and personal identity. Their impact was political, economic, and social, for great hospitals came to symbolize scientific advancement in an enlightened benevolent society.