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Have been thinking about hospitals lately. A hospital might be the last building you ever walk into. A hospital ceiling might be the last ceiling you ever see. People comfort sick and dying loved ones, and each other, in hospitals. (Pic: 1950s Hospital in Charleston)
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In my opinion, there is no excuse for the ugliness of contemporary hospitals. Hospitals should be beautiful buildings. But so normalized is ugliness in hospitals that the idea of a beautiful hospital is simply inconceivable to us today. (Pic: 1990s addition to the above)
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This will be a thread devoted to beautiful hospitals. I invite y’all to add to it.
I’ll start with my very favorite hospital in the world, the Sultan Bayezid II Hospital on the outskirts of Edirne, Turkey, born in 1488. I have been twice to visit it and just love it.
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I’ll start with my very favorite hospital in the world, the Sultan Bayezid II Hospital on the outskirts of Edirne, Turkey, born in 1488. I have been twice to visit it and just love it.
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One more set of the Sultan Bayezid II Hospital. Note the ceilings, the fountain. The open arch-covered platform off the courtyard is a stage for musicians. They understood that music affects the body as much as architecture.
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The Henry VIII Gate to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in the City of London, born 1702. Still in use as the main entrance today.
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Hospital building in Charleston, born 1913.
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The Baker Sanatorium in Charleston, born in 1912 and started as a family-run hospital. Now condos.
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Marine Hospital, born in 1833 in Charleston, designed by Robert Mills.
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St. Francis Hospital, Charleston, born in the 1920s, "façade hidden by insensitive additions" in the 1960s. (True, that. I won't show you.)
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Post Hospital, Fort Moultrie, Sullivan's Island. No longer with us.
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Ķemeri Sanatorium, Jūrmala, Latvia.
12/n Brompton Hospital, London, born 1882, designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt & Matthew Wyatt.
13/n Greenwich Hospital, London
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1904 design for St. Bartholomew's Hospital by Arthur Beresford Pite.
1904 design for St. Bartholomew's Hospital by Arthur Beresford Pite.
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Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, in the neighborhood of El Guinardó in Barcelona, built between 1901 and 1930, operated as a hospital until 2009, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site:
Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, in the neighborhood of El Guinardó in Barcelona, built between 1901 and 1930, operated as a hospital until 2009, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site:
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An interior of the above Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona:
An interior of the above Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona:
17/ When we came upon the powerfully beautiful Hospital Santo Antonio in Porto, I thought for sure it must have been converted into a museum or luxury flats. I went in and discovered that it’s still in use as a hospital today! Designed by John Carr, construction began 1770:
18/ The Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin. Built as a home for retired soldiers of the Irish Army by Sir William Robinson between 1679 and 1687. "It was such a sight that in 1684 a rule was introduced forbidding residents to accept gratuities from visitors who came to see it."
19/ L’Hôpital Principal de Dakar, born 1884.
20/ We have a tendency today to think of our society as more advanced than previous ones, and perhaps in some ways we are. These are ancient Roman medical instruments found in Pompeii:
21/ Aotea Hospital, Heliopolis, Cairo:
22/ "When in 1443, Chancellor Rolin founded the Hospices de Beaune, Beaune was coming out of the 100 years war, a period of unrest and plague that decimated the countryside. It was for the poor and the most disadvantaged that this masterpiece was built."
23/ Back to Charleston for a moment - Roper Hospital in 1908:
24 - The Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Italy, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi in 1419:
