ARCHITECTURE
Angélica Bonnahon – Architect Laura Tonelli – Architect
An architectural history of hospitals in Argentina
The authors offer a summary of a book1 which depicts the healthcare architecture in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, looking at the close relationship between the historical, physical and social context, the medical paradigms and the architectonical response worldwide.
Between 1911 and 1953, numerous European immigrants arrived in Argentina in search of jobs, to escape from religious persecutions and wars, and to seek a better quality of life. Once the immigrants reached the port of Buenos Aires, they stayed at the Immigrants Hotel (Fig. 1 & 2). Building work on this hotel was started in
1906 by the Udina y Mosca company, pursuant to the project issued by the Ministry of Public Works, and it was opened in 1911. Its purpose was to receive, lodge, render sanitary services, assistance when looking for a job and to provide transportation to immigrants. It was a complex that included a job
centre, a luggage warehouse, an administrative office, a hospital and a hotel. The facilities allowed the newly arrived immigrants to spend the first five days of their stay in the country without cost, a period which could be extended in the event of illness or lack of a job. The hospital would provide the first
sanitary assistance to new arrivals after often long and difficult journeys. It had a disinfection area, consulting rooms, a pharmacy, a morgue, an operating threatre and hospitalisation areas for men, women and children. Community Hospitals (1837 to 1937) –
These buildings were created to provide assistance to members of a specific nationality. Great Britain and France were the first to set up such hospitals in the City of Buenos Aires to provide health assistance.
The British hospital The British Hospital (Fig. 3) was born when the British Philanthropic Society (later the British Medical Dispensary) was founded, to provide medical attention to British residents and Anglo saxon sailors. Rev. Barton Lodge,
IFHE DIGEST 2015
Figure 1: Exterior of the Immigrants Hotel. Figure 2: Interior of the Immigrants Hotel (insert).
chaplain of the British consulate in 1844 rented a property with 13 rooms to take care of 20 men. Building plans and management of works were organised by the Architect, Juan Ryder. The hospital occupied an area of 12,412 m2
with 60 beds, six wards and nine private rooms for admittance and treatment, two external consulting rooms, surgery services – four operating theatres, investigation and X-ray wards, medical services, consulting rooms for treatment of illnesses inherent to eyes, ears, throat and odonthology. It also served as a retirement home. In 1889, Nurse Elizabeth Eames, from
St Thomas’ Hospital of London arrived at the hospital. She had trained in the Florence Nightingale School. She took over as the new Matron and created the Nurses’ School in Argentina which was the first institution of its kind, being qualified and located in an annex of the hospital, with student residence. Further enlargements to the hospital were made in 1906 and 1914 and, in 1938, on the same location, the new Hospital was built, based on the project of Architects Arnold Jacobs and Rafael Gimenez.
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The French hospital The Philanthropic and Beneficiary Association of the River Plate (1832/1842) worked as an assistance society. The French Hospital (Fig. 4) with 12 beds was intitially located on on Independencia Street, but was re-located in 1847 to Libertad Street and
Angélica Bonnahon
Angélica Bonnahon is a licensed architect specialising in health issues. She is a founding member of Argentine Association of Hospitalarian Architecture and Engineering . (AADAIH).
Laura Tonelli
Laura Tonelli is a licensed architect specialising in health issues. She is a member of AADAIH’s managing Committee and is a Social Psychologist.
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