Sarah Kubitschek Hospital-Salvador, Brazil: Principles for a healing architecture at latitude 13°

The Sarah Kubitschek Hospitals Chain in Brazil have been in operation since early 1990's. Today, with 9 hospitals designed and constructed throughout Brazil, the chain deliver high quality treatment for social disadvantaged patients with locomotor apparatus problems. For this paper, the pioneer of such buildings, the Sarah Hospital in Salvador - Bahia, located in the tropical northeast coast of Brazil (latitude 13°S) will be discussed. This is a building that runs almost completely without air conditioning in a city that more than 70% of the new residential apartment buildings are fitted with small air conditioning units. On the other side of the globe, also at latitude 13°S we find the Royal Darwin Hospital, located in Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, Australia. The hospital was initially built in the early 1970's (based on a Canadian design typology) and had an additional wing built between 2003/04. This is a building that runs completely with air conditioning in a city that 90% of residential buildings are fitted with air conditioning units. The implications of such initial design decisions are extensive, and have significant impact on the psychological, social and environmental well being of users along with their ability to recover and heal. The direct relationship of a person to the environment (e.g.visual, thermal, acoustic comfort) and the way the spaces mediate the relationship with people (e.g.use of spaces, privacy, views) are the two main features in which architecture plays an important role on the design of healing spaces. This paper discusses through comparisons of design principles and processes, along with monitored data (on aspects of thermal comfort), how the architectural design of two places, with similar climatic conditions, at same latitude, have resulted on very different responses to its environment and users.