ABSTRACT
For most of the years that I was in practice as an architect, I was involved in the design of hospitals, or rather parts of hospitals, including patients’ wards, day centres and facilities for therapy of various kinds. The brief given by the health authority was always precise and specific on matters of floor space, equipment, technology and detail, but silent on the general quality of the environment. There was something lacking here; I became interested in the way such factors as colour, light and air could be considered in the interests of the patient. I thought of a name for this desirable but undefined quality: locotherapy, or cure through the environment. Seeking support for further study of this aspect of health care, I was lucky enough to receive funding from the Guild of St George (a charity founded by John Ruskin) and from the RIBA to study, respectively, the needs of children in hospital with cancer, and the design of wards for psychiatric care in District General Hospitals. This research was carried out concurrently with the design and then construction of two such wards, together with day care facilities, at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.2 After these projects were completed, I became interested in the history of buildings for health care and, having always had a love of Greek classical architecture, it occurred to me to look at the shrines for health in ancient Greece. In 1991 I started a study of asklepieia and similar buildings to see if there was anything to learn from the Greeks that could be of use or inspiration to a hospital architect today. What follows are notes of my impressions of places visited and my conclusions.
