Introduction

In this paper I analyze the role of the modernism movement in the history of hospital design, mostly focusing on the period comprised between the late nineteenth century and Postwar era. This span of time was affected by different factors, as the deadliest infectious disease seen on Earth, Tuberculosis, and the shock of the World War. Modern architecture was a response to nineteenth century overstuffed Victorian Houses, it cleaned itself from all the unnecessary ornaments fulfilled with dramatic memories for making space to white, smooth surfaces free from what was a surplus in a design now conceived as functional and free from the dust that ornaments accumulated and that was synonym of disease. Architecture was now based on hygiene and its client was the tuberculosis patient. Doctors and architects started to work close together with the aim of finding a cure through the design. The most advanced technologies in the treatment of tuberculosis were the same newly developed technologies used in Le Corbusier’s design, roof terraces, balconies, and glazed walls above all that gave the access for the only cure available for tuberculosis, a mix of sun, rest, and fresh air. Along with these new principles, a revival of the aspects of Romanticism was becoming influent in all the arts. It was the Biocentrism, which was a more holistic approach to life compared to the rationalistic and machine-driven philosophy of the nineteenth century. Modern architecture was strongly affected by biocentrism. This reflected mostly in the design of hospitals and especially tuberculosis sanatoriums. Architects as Jan Duiker in the Zonnestraal Sanatorium and Alvar Aalto in the Paimio Sanatorium showed the new holistic approach of modern architecture based on a close connection between patients and nature, placing their well-being at the center of their design. With the improvement in the comprehension of bacteria through the theory of germ, the discovery of penicillin in 1928 and the consequent widespread of antibiotics in 1940s, psychological and social needs of patients were neglected in hospital design. In this paper, after having described the relationship between architecture, health and modernism, I will analyze two of the most symbolic building in modern architecture, the aforementioned Zonneestraal Sanatorium and Paimio Sanatorium, and I will then compare the hospital design of the middle nineteenth century with that of modernism and postwar era.