An Architectural Prognosis: Greek Medicine & Architecture

An evolving narrative is apparent in the history of medicine, moving from Hippocratic medicine, which was formed in close relationship to culture and philosophy, to the abstract determinism of contemporary scientific medicine. If we consider that this is not solely a condition of medicine per se, but a modus operandi systemic to the human condition, medicine may be used as a metaphor to facilitate an en-gagement with our built form. The relationship between architecture and medicine is a topic with both contemporary resonance and deep historical roots; architects, theorists, and critics have turned to the body and body metaphors for inspiration or justification, a topic as vast as the worldwide history of architecture. In classical Greece, philosophy and medicine, in pursuit of an understanding of the human condition, were intimately connected. The dominant concep-tion of man held by Hippocrates and others was that the body was to be in harmonious balance with nature, and, in turn, with itself. In this study, Hippocratic medicine and its philosophy is used to generate, through analogy, an architectural strategy for the revitalization of a neighbourhood, Mechanicsville, Ottawa Canada.