Quelques réflexions sur l’architecture hospitalière

Abstract

The word ‘hospital’ is an ambivalent word that, in the Western world, corresponds with a complex reality in which medical theory and architectural doctrines are closely intertwined, sometimes working together, sometimes in conflict. More often than not, architects, who are professional men used to dealing with multiple and often contradictory requirements, tend to temper the demands of the medical profession whose members were not always aware of the fact that their doctrines were destined to become obsolescent sooner or later. Sometimes, however, architects came to interpret medical theories to a point where these acquired the force of self-evidence. This is why, throughout its history, hospital design has given rise to a certain number of notable types, widely adopted. Every time a specific hospital design thus emerged, it was the result of the conjunction of several aspects of shared imaginings. The built forms these acquire find a profound echo in the mental representations of the time, medical and architectural ones of course, but also social ones. And when such a combination of factors comes into play, the resulting architectural type tends to survive longer than the medical theory from which it emerged. So a hospital bears witness to a society at a particular moment, in its deepest and most intimate aspects. It is an essential historical marker and an important part of heritage, all the more so when the appropriateness of its original design still allows it to fulfil its original function, probably not without difficulty but in a valiant manner.

Keywords

• hospital
• Jacques-Germain Soufflot
• general hospital
• Hotel-Dieu
• hospital architecture
• hospital heritage