More than a century ago, architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner designed a hospital around a question that few architects were asking: what if healing was not only about medicine? At a time when hospitals were becoming increasingly industrial and utilitarian, he insisted that patients deserved not only treatment, but beauty.
The spaces we inhabit, he recognised, shape the way we feel, think and heal. So, when he designed Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona, he did not create a machine for healthcare; he created an environment for healing. The hospital was divided into pavilions surrounded by gardens, ensuring patients had access to fresh air, natural light and views of nature. Stained glass, mosaics, sculptures and intricate details were woven into the architecture itself, not as decoration, but as part of the experience.
