Building to Heal

Building to Heal: New Architecturefor Hospitals examines the hardships and majorchallenges faced by the hospital system today and presents innovative modelsand solutions in healthcare architecture. Through critical, scientifically baseddiscourse, a variety of authors examine healthcare systems and hospital architecture,what hospitals are missing, and how architecture can contribute to the healingprocess of patients.

The publication answers thesequestions in three comprehensive chapters based on the medical process: “Symptoms,”“Diagnosis,” and “Therapy.” The introductory section describes the symptoms ofthe “sick house” and spotlights the urgent need to take these problemsseriously in the contexts of both society as a whole and architecture. In thesecond section, experts from psychology, medicine, and the related sciences, aswell as from architectural theory and philosophy, take a diagnostic look at thecomplex causes that lead to the “diseased house.” The third section presentsseven “active ingredients” or scientifically investigated environmentalvariables for successful therapy, incorporating tools from evidence-based design.Finally, thirteen international case studies show how the conscious use ofenvironmental variables leads to a hospital architecture that promotes healing.

Building to Heal: New Architecturefor Hospitals bridges the gap between theever-growing expertise on healthcare architecture and the urgent need forplanners, politicians, and the public to pay attention to one of the mostimportant issues in architecture today: health.