Hygiene and health in modern urban planning : the sanatorium and its role within the Modernist movement

Eylers, Eva Charlotte (2010). Hygiene and health in modern urban planning : the sanatorium and its role within the Modernist movement. PhD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000f8e9

Abstract

The thesis looks at the ways in which the spatial organisation and architecture of the tuberculosis sanatorium, which emerged as a distinct medical institution in Europe in the 19th century, developed over time. The main question centres on the migrations of the programmatic typology of the sanatorium, its engagement with the city and its instrumental role in the debates on the planning of the modern city.

Using this specific building type as an analytical device, and considering the medical and psychological conditions posed by the modern metropolis - of which the sanatorium is a product of and a response - this research discusses how the tuberculosis sanatorium provided a cure not only against TB, but against diseases associated with the experience of the city.

The research was approached through a number of case studies (the Zonnestraal sanatorium, Netherlands; the Paimio sanatorium, Finland; the Beelitzer Heilstatten, Germany) in order to investigate both, the development of the building type and the design and the reality of the built form.