Shaping the Future: Re-Thinking Ancient Hospitals, a Current Challenge

CHERCHI, PIER FRANCESCO

2015-01-01

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Abstract

The issue of our proposal is about rethinking ancient hospitals and shaping the future through imagination and architectural design. It is a methodological research and a technical proposal on the restoration and rehabilitation to current hospital needs of ancient healthcare facilities. The research moves over starting from several questions. Is it possible to reconcile the requirements of the protection of historic buildings, with the technical and functional characteristics of a modern hospital? Is it feasible to upgrade ancient hospitals to modern standards of fire safety, insulation and accessibility by very careful work on the fabric, using all means to address deficiencies without damaging older materials, spaces or finishes? What future is possible to imagine for old hospitals, that for their function assume an important position in the memory of a community? The research addresses the complexity of the issue by analyzing related cases, already subjects of projects and realizations, and proposes answers to these questions by investigating a case study example, the hospital of San Giovanni di Dio in Cagliari (Italy). The San Giovanni di Dio hospital, is an extraordinary nineteenth-century building, located in the oldest part of the city, designed by a master of neoclassical architecture, the architect Gaetano Cima. In 1842 Gaetano Cima imagined an innovative building designed as a place for wellness and health care of its citizens. He conceived it as a real urban device, able to relate to the city and determine subsequent developments. The hospital, which is gradually being disposed of, it was for more than 100 years the most important in Sardinia. The study is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is intended to define solutions universally applicable. Our intent is to foster a common sensibility towards practices of reuse of existing facilities and to promote debate about would should be the future of ancient hospitals, that in many cases have remarkable architectonic, cultural and historic qualities.