How Do We Feel in a Hospital? The design of hospitals and care facilities shapes how patients, visitors, and staff experience health and wellbeing. Architecture influences recovery, stress levels, privacy, social interaction, and even our relationship with the surrounding landscape. Arch(i)zond explores health architecture across past, present, and future. By combining historical research, on‑site observation, and design imagination, it asks: how have hospitals shaped us over time – and how might they care for us differently tomorrow?
A Journey Through Time, in the Hospital Itself – What makes this project distinctive is its time‑based approach and its use of archival material – such as historical plans, images, and documents – to reconstruct how ideas about care and contagion once informed hospital design. An exhibition on site in the hospital allowed visitors, staff, and patients to encounter these materials alongside contemporary projects and future scenarios. A guided tour of the hospital with designers connected the exhibition directly to the building: visitors could see how past decisions live on in corridors, patient rooms, views, and waiting areas.
In collaboration with EGM architects and The Nieuwe Instituut, the project invited people to experience the hospital not only as a place of treatment, but as a living archive and a laboratory for future forms of care. Presentations and discussions brought the three time frames together, showing how architectural choices in one period continue to influence practices and possibilities in another. Thee main themes connected the time frames:
Healing in Nature: For centuries, people have turned to nature for rest, clean air, and recovery—for example, in the treatment of tuberculosis. Sanatorium Zonnestraal in Hilversum was designed with large windows and broad views across the surrounding forests. The Sint Maartenskliniek in the wooded hills of Groesbeek continues this tradition by offering each patient room direct access to a balcony, placing people almost literally among the trees.
Separation and Isolation: The need to separate and protect people with highly infectious diseases has long influenced hospital design. The Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis in Amsterdam once consisted of separate pavilions to contain outbreaks within a single building. In 2022, Radboudumc introduced a specialised infectious‑disease unit where patients with severe, contagious illnesses—such as Ebola—can be treated safely using advanced isolation techniques.
Encounter and Connection: Social contact, or the ability to choose privacy, is vital for many people. For decades, shared wards were standard practice, such as those in the Julianaziekenhuis in Terneuzen, built in 1954. Today, the new Radboudumc main building provides only single‑patient rooms, complemented by purpose‑designed hubs where patients, relatives, and care professionals can meet in a more informal and human‑centred way.