Architectural responses to public health transitions: Evolving concepts & tech

Jia Li Li ,Tong Cui

doi:10.24294/jipd11732

Home - JIPD - Volume 9 - Issue 3

Submit to JIPD

Journal Browser

Volume | Year

Issue

• Current lssue

View All

News and Announcements

View All

Architectural responses to public health transitions: Evolving concepts & tech

Jia Li Li

Tong Cui

Journal of Infrastructure Policy and Development 2025, 9(3), 11732; https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd11732

Submitted：03 May 2025

Accepted：16 Jul 2025

Published：31 Jul 2025

Download PDF(1.59M)

XML

Abstract

In the history of public health, space has evolved through several stages driven by shifts in concepts of disease control. The history of public health is summarized by George Rosen in six phases: Origins (before 500 CE), Middle Ages (500–1500), Mercantilism and Absolutism (1500–1750), Enlightenment and Revolution (1750–1830), Industrialism and the Sanitary Movement (1830–1875), and the Bacteriological Era (1875–present). By integrating architectural sociology—a temporal lens examining the interplay between architecture, individuals, and society—this study investigates how architects historically responded to public health challenges, offering critical insights for contemporary healthy habitat design. Architecture not only addresses survival needs but also materializes societal consciousness. The progression of health-related cognition (e.g., germ theory), behavioural norms (e.g., hygiene practices), infrastructure systems (e.g., sanitation networks), and scientific advancements collectively redefined spatial paradigms. Architects constructed temples, thermae, lazarettos, Beitian Yangbingfang (charitable infirmaries), anatomical theaters, quarantine hospitals, tenements, mass housing, and biosafety laboratories. These cases exemplify the co-evolution of “Concept” (disease control ideologies), “Technology” (construction methods), and “Space” (built environments). By synthesizing centuries of public health spatial practices, this research deciphers the dynamic interplay among “Concept, Technology, and Space”. Leveraging historical patterns, we propose a predictive framework to refine future spatial strategies in anticipation of emerging health crises.

Keywords

Ideological and Political Education

References

Addams, J. (1910). Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. New York, NY, USA: Macmillan.

Bai, Y. Z. (2021). Available online: http://ydyl.china.com.cn/2021-12/31/content_77961713_33.htm style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk143260381;"> (accessed on 22 May 2025).

Cao, G., Tang, J., Wang, D., et al. (2019). Design and construction of biosafety laboratories. Beijing: Science Press.

Cheng, H. (2023). Research on Urban Spatial Injustice [PhD thesis]. Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Chicagology. (2021). Available online: https://chicagology.com/prefire/prefire021/ (accessed on 22 May 2025).

Debord, G. (1994). The Society of the Spectacle. Zone Books.

Dou, W. (1987). On Architectural Sociology. Journal of Architecture, (3), 67-70.

Engels, F. (1887). The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844. London, UK: S. Sonnenschein & Co.

Foucault, M. (1961). A History of Madness in the Classical Age (French). Paris: Plon.

Gao, X. (2019). Available online: https://worldscience.cn/zt/kxwh/604314.shtml style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK23;"> (accessed on 22 May 2025).

Guan, Y. (2017). A Brief Analysis of Ancient Roman Civic Architecture in the Trajan Era. Research on Heritages and Preservation, 2(12), 61-65.

Guo, C., Lan, L., Xiong, T. (2024). Reflecting on the Design of Healthy Built Environments from a Historical Perspective in the Field of Public Health and Architecture. Architectural Science, 40(2), 19-29.

Hao, S. (2017). On Hippocrates’ Concept of Health [Master’s thesis]. Shaanxi Normal University.

Hippocrates. (1526). De Aere, Aquis et Locis. Venice: Aldus Manutius.

James. (1866). Available online: https://chicagology.com/prefire/chicagoillustrated/1866jan02/ (accessed on 22 May 2025).

Kiple, K. F. (1993). The Cambridge World History of Human Disease. Cambridge University Press.

Lefebvre, H. (1974). La production de l’espace. L Homme et La Société, 31(1), 15–32. https://doi.org/10.3406/homso.1974.1855

Li, Y. (2020). 3 Combinations of Public Health and Architecture. Architectural Creation, 2020(4), 30-37.

Lin, H., Ma, P. (2021). InSAR Monitoring Methods and Applications for Urban Infrastructure Health. Beijing: Science Press.

Locke, J. (1975). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lu, A., Dou, P. (2020). Extreme versus Regular: Questions of New Human Habitat in Post-2020 Era. Journal of Architecture, 2020(S1), 28-33.

Lü, C. (2022). Creation in Flux: The “Furnace Diagram” from Mawangdui and Theories of Life Casting in Early China. Art Panorama, 12, 99-106.

Mayer-Schönberger, V., Cukier, K. (2013). Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. Boston, MA, USA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Ou, X., Wang, W., Ma, M. (2023). On the Historical Development and Evolution of Mobile Architecture from the Perspective of ‘Society-Space’ Interaction. Architecture and Culture, (9), 200-202.

Park, R. E., Burgess, E. W., & Mckenzie, R. D. (1925). The city: Suggestions for investigation of human behavior in the urban environment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Qi, Z. (2006). A brief discussion on the Beitian Yangbingfang (charitable hospices) in the Tang Dynasty. Journal of Xi’an University of Arts and Science (Social Sciences Edition), 9(1), 37 -39.

Richardson, B. W. (1876). Hygeia: A City of Health. London: Macmillan and Co.

Rosen, G. (1958). A history of public health. MD Publications.

Ross, C. L., Orenstein, M., Botchwey, N. (2014). Health Impact Assessment in the United States: Theory, Methods, and Case Studies. Washington, DC, USA: Island Press.

Tang, K. (2022). The Idea and Generation of “Innovation Space: An Architectural Sociology and Its Related Practice.” Creativity and Design, (5), 11-19.

Tyng, A. (1984). Louis I. Kahn: The Philosophy of Order. New York: Rizzoli International Publications.

Valles, S. A. (2018). Philosophy of Population Health: Philosophy for the New Public Health Era. London, U.K.: Routledge.

Vaneigem, R. (1983). The Revolution of Everyday Life. London: Left Bank Books.

Vitruvius. (1914). The Ten Books on Architecture. Harvard University Press.

Wang, J. (2021). Research on Cognitive Development of Design Based on Building Health and Safety. Urbanism and Architecture, 18(35), 145-147, 195.

Wang, J. G., Zhuang W. M., Meng J. M., et al. (2020). Group Discussions: Contemporary City, New Human Habitat, and Architectural DeSsign. Journal of Architecture, 2020(S1), 2-27.

Wang, Q., Meng, C., Zhang, Y., et al. (2018). Development concept, status and trend of healthy building in China. China Construction Industry Press.

Wang, T., Zhang, S., Wu, T. (2022). Orderly Operation, Organic Growth: Construction of a Prevention and Control System for Public Health Emergencies. Contemporary Architecture, 2022(5), 130-133.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. (2018). Available online https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hippocrates_bust_and_title_page_Wellcome_L0041093.jpg (accessed on 22 May 2025).

Winslow, C. E. A. (1920). The Untilled Fields of Public Health. Science, 51(1306), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.51.1306.23

Xiao, H., Li, H. (2021). Active Intervention and Its Strategies of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) on Landscape Architecture Planning and Design. Journal of Western Human Settlements, 36(2), 69-77.

Xu, Z., Hu, X., Zeng, D. (2018). Environmental Risk: Environmental Decision-Making Under Uncertainty. Beijing: China Environmental Publishing Group.

Yishuzhizao. (2011). Available online: http://www.capablist.com/uc/3759271 (accessed on 22 May 2025).

Zhang, L. (2016). Active Health: Human Body, Leisure and Playfulness of Public Space. World Architecture, (11), 16.

Previous
article in this issue

Next
article in this issue