ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the spaces and machines used for treating and looking inside the body for diagnosis and therapy. Machinery that enabled subcutaneous investigation without surgery, such as X-ray, coupled with pathology laboratories, led to more reliable diagnosis and built a regime of testing that was physically separate from the being of the patient. The ensuing treatments involved, first, a proliferation of equipment that relied on the mechanical or physical manipulation of the whole body, such as physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, oxygen therapy, heliotherapy and artificial light treatments. Tools to look or treat inside the body included X-ray (radiography), fluoroscopy and radiotherapy, and later included computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), all of which demanded specific spatial responses within the design of the hospital. A shift to drug and radiation therapies saw older ideas of environmental salubriousness and regimes of patient management diminish in importance. The chapter documents the array of specialised spaces of treatment that appeared at various points in the twentieth century and analyses the challenges involved in designing for highly specialised functions while continually adapting to medical and technical innovation.
