The question of change in design: The influence of doctors and medical knowledge on the design of the modern hospital

Change is a constant factor that underlies natural phenomena, human life as well as man-made artifacts. Architecture like any other human endeavor is subject to change and to the challenge it brings to meet the new demand and to accommodate the needs they define. Through the analysis of a specific institutional building (the hospital in its modern history), this study attempted to follow the role of theory (medical) as well as those behinde it (doctors) in the design and the building of one of the most sensitive human institution that defines both the level of civilization of an epoch as well as the compassion, care and humanity of the society that created it. To better understand the typological transformation of the modern hospital and to assess the influence of doctors and medical knowledge on its architectural organization, three modern hospital projects were analyzed: the Pennsylvania Hospital, the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the New York Hospital. The selection of these three projects was based on the following two criteria: (a) each of the three hospitals represents a major stage in the transformation of the hospital building, and (b) the availability and accessibility of both primary and secondary sources. From the analysis of these three hospital projects it becomes clear that the change in their spatial organizations and distribution of their interior functional spaces were direct architectural response to two main forces: (a) the change in theories of disease that dominated the etiological world since the birth of the modern medicine, and (b) the pivotal role played by doctors in translating such medical knowledge into physical form