Welcome to the first article of our Designing Hospitals series, where we explore how architecture and design shape our hospitals and medical centres. Today, we look at changes in hospital design since convict times, from simple huts to supportive spaces that reduce patient anxiety and stress. Although architecture surrounds us and we engage with it daily, most assume design is benign or inert. Yet it shapes our actions and interactions. In the hospital, design can make the difference between life and death. Architecture has played a crucial role in the hospital: as an instrument of status, of hygiene, of therapy, of control and, more recently, of support. Read more: Not just a pretty interface: good design goes beyond looks As far as we know, the first hospital in Australia was built in Sydney in 1788 and Governor Phillip quickly prioritised building it. It was just the third permanent building […]