SPACES FOR HEALTH: AN OVERVIEW. From the temple to the mall concept

This short paper discusses, in summary, aspects of planning and designing hospitals through time having in mind the possible analogies between an agora or the bazaar and the hospital (health care facility) and also the parallel route of Hospital & the development of the city through history.
Since the very first, most famous organized health care facilities of the ancient times found in Greece and Middle East are the temple of the God Asclepius (he was a doctor) (see fig02).
Through the 14th and 15th centuries until Renaissance hospitals are influenced by the architecture of the public buildings of the period and the Medieval temple. During the 19th century, at 1853, the traditional ward “Nightingale” was designed. The facades of most hospitals influenced by it maintaining the neoclassic style (see fig03). In the 20th century, functional parameters such as friendly environment, quality in services supply, quality in architectural design became major in the creation of health care facilities volumes, either as blocks, village type or the type of the mall.
Today basic Design parameters are:

• MORPHOLOGY;
• VISUAL IMPACT;
• EXPANSION & FLEXIBILITY;
• CIRCULATION;
• SIGNS; 
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