20/03/2025
Tomorow:
AnnMarie Adams, titled: “Grand Plans: hospital architecture and what it tells us”.
We are pleased to announce the third lecture of the International Seminar ARCHITECTURE DESIGN AND RESEARCH 2025, an initiative jointly promoted by Universidade Lusófona, the Manchester School of Architecture, and the University of Ljubljana. The seminar is coordinated by Professors Maria Rita Pais, Ana Neiva, Carlos Guimarães, Dana Arnold, Tadeja Zupancic, and Spela Hudnik.
This session will feature a lecture by AnnMarie Adams, titled: “Grand Plans: hospital architecture and what it tells us”.
📅 Date: March 21
🕒 Time: 14:30 GMT / 15:30 CET
🌐 Online Session Link: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/93215713573
Grand Plans: hospital architecture and what it tells us
This talk explores the role of monumentality in a century of hospital design. From the sprawling British pavilion-plan building typology to postwar towers and today’s mega-institutions, hospital architects have consistently argued for bigness. Such notions of largesse have been expressed in a range of architectural ambitions, from building massing to complex arrangements for air and patient circulation. Is bigger always better? We explore extensive wards, imposing silhouettes, sophisticated anti-contagion strategies, and even temporary COVID hospitals with this question in mind.
Building on the methodologies of her 2008 book Medicine by Design, Adams’ new work extends the ways the built environment can serve as historical evidence. Current projects include a “spatial biography” of a well-known woman doctor and a yearning to capture her own subjective responses to the study of hospital architecture.
Annmarie Adams is an architectural historian, jointly appointed in the School of Architecture and the Department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University, Montreal. She holds the Stevenson Chair in the history and philosophy of science, including medicine. Adams is a leader in architectural and medical education, having served as Director of the McGill University’s School of Architecture, Chair of the Canadian Council of University Schools of Architecture, Chair of the Department of Social Studies of Medicine (McGill), and, currently, as President of the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine. She is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and the Society of Architectural Historians.