ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the hospital bed as a site and driver of design and architecture for the hospital in the twentieth century. The bed was styled as a self-contained “healing machine”, a site of clinical investigation and observation, as well as the unit by which hospitals defined their capacity. The bed became a mobile and increasingly adjustable place of patient treatment, capable of movement to different parts of the hospital. In the interwar decades, the bed also became a command post as well as the focus of patient amusement, recreation and repose. Electronic call systems were introduced for ready communication with nursing staff and a variety of medical and non-medical technologies, from reticulated oxygen to radio, were brought to the bedside. The patient was empowered, but so too was the bed’s servicing. Its placement was critical to the design and planning of wards, and the shift to smaller wards required both efficiency and amenity. At the same time, patient comfort and privacy were carefully managed through acoustic treatment, appropriate furnishings and restful prospects. The relationship of the bed to the outside – to light and landscape – was considered essential: windows and glass began to assume greater importance. With the increasing adoption of air conditioning, the technological servicing of patient bedrooms and wards encouraged interiors that had the aesthetic appearance of an efficient machine.
