Konferenser och symposier KI Lifestyle4Health network conference: Architecture and Spaces of Healing

Abstract

In the twenty-first century life expectancy is greater than ever before, thanks to exponential growth in our ability to care for the elderly and to resolve physical problems in younger people. We have medical science to account for this: non-invasive diagnostics, robotic key-hole surgery followed by rapid recuperation and advances in pharmacology are just some of the things that have underpinned these welcome developments. Many old hospitals have been rebuilt – and new ones laid out on the outskirts of towns and cities, surrounded by car parks and standing as technological blocks symbolic of scientific progress.

At the same time, and especially on the back of the biggest global health crisis in a century, mental health has become a matter of huge concern, affecting not just the human activity but also physical well-being of millions. For many, hospital cities are seen as dystopic worlds full of frightening technicality. In this context, how we deploy architecture and how we shape the interior and exterior environments of buildings that provide healthcare are questions of high currency. They are questions not just about how we manage health, going forward, but of how we manage public policy and improve society itself.

In 2021, it was announced in the UK that the Wolfson Economics Prize would be awarded for ideas towards planning and designing the hospital of the future, as a place that would radically improve patient experiences, clinical outcomes, staff wellbeing, and integration with wider health and social care. Over 250 entries for the competition were received from organisations in 15 different countries.

One of the five finalists was a team led by the architect of well-known classical buildings of the past three decades in the UK and USA, John Simpson. This has inspired the newly founded Ax:son Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture (CSCA) at the University of Cambridge to partner with Karolinska Institutet, Sweden’s premier university for medical research, in organising the conference Architecture and Spaces of Healing. This event will bring historical perspectives on architecture associated with medical health and wellbeing together with contemporary research and thinking about architectural and environmental design for places of healthcare. The conference also includes a session on recent research concerning neuroscientific understandings of how buildings and their surroundings can affect physical wellbeing.

Programme

12:00 Registration and lunch in the Drawing Room of the Howard Building

13:00 Welcome and introduction in the Howard Assembly Room (Live streaming begins via zoom)

Frank Salmon, CSCA, St John’s College, University of Cambridge

Kerstin Brismar, Karolinska Institutet

13:15 SESSION 1:  HISTORIC SPACES OF HEALING

Chair: Elizabeth Deans, CSCA, Downing College, University of Cambridge

‘Caring for the Body and the Mind in Roman Baths’ by Konogan Beaufay, Downing College, University of Cambridge

‘Spaces of Healing in Early Renaissance Rome: The Hospital of Santo Spirito and the Urban Body’ by Johanna Heinrichs, University of Kentucky College of Design

‘Competition, Classicism, and Cosmopolitanism. The Architecture of Professional Medicine in Seventeenth-Century London’ by Matthew Walker, Queen Mary, University of London

Discussion

Coffee break

14:45 SESSION 2: ARCHITECTURE AND NEUROSCIENCE

Chair: Frida Brismar Pålsson, Paradis Produktion

‘How a Classic Pattern Aligns with Beauty to Improve Our Health and Well-Being’ by Donald Ruggles, Ruggles Mabe Studio

‘The Body Breathes Emotion: How Greek Architecture Moves Us’ by Mark Alan Hewitt, Academy of Architecture for Neuroscience

Michael Mehaffy, Sustasis Foundation; Lennard Institute for Livable Cities

Discussion

Tea break

16:15 SESSION 3: DESIGNING SPACES OF HEALING

Chair: Alan Short, University of Cambridge

Cristiana Caira, Chalmers University of Technology 

Hanna Morichetto, Chalmers University of Technology

John Simpson, John Simpson Architects, University of Cambridge

         Comfort break

17:00 Panel discussion

‘How can our knowledge of historic architecture, neuroscience, and modern practices shape the design of spaces of healing for the future?’

18:00 Drinks reception in the Drawing Room