The Absent ColumnIt's been a tough year for Brutalist buildings and Nathan Eddy explores the preservation controversy surrounding Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Women's hospital, a 1970s building in Chicago slated for demolition.

Completed in 2007, the Infanta Leonor Hospital in Madrid was conceived as a model for the "Hospital of the 21st Century"—incorporating a "healing architecture" that prioritized the needs and well-being of patients. Photo courtesy of Luis Vidal + Architects.

Timothy Beatley, a professor of sustainable communities at the University of Virginia, says hospitals should be community centers. "[Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital in Singapore] makes me hopeful because it shows how healthcare facilities can be designed to include nature," he says. "While there is no recorded evidence, my gut feeling is that this building does heal. This is a hospital people want to be in."

Palomar West Hospital by Marie Goulet.

The Hospital Can Misses in Ibiza, Spain. Photo courtesy of Luis Vidal + Architects.

Murphy revealed that the masons had become so adept at their handiwork upon completing the fourth wall of the hospital’s façade, they wanted to redo their earlier work. Photo provided by MASS Design Group.

Local labor seen at work on the Bhutaro Hospital. Photo provided by MASS Design Group.

This was a typical ward at Kanakee State Hospital in Kanakee, Illinois.

This photo shows the demolition of the Danvers State Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts.

Things are rather overgrown at Norwich State Hospital in Preston, Connecticut.

Located on the corner of a busy thoroughfare, the building—with its illuminated ceiling, which glows through floor-to-ceiling windows—acts as a beacon in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens.

The design's use of color and light earned it an AIA Healthcare Design Award in the under $25 million category.

The waiting room features clean lines and pops of bright colors, making what can be a stressful environment a soothing space.

Patients enter through a bright orange door that recalls classic midcentury forms, while a perforated metal screen adds a uniform face over existing windows, letting in sunlight during the day and allowing the building to emit a warm glow at night.

The New York Hospital Queens Astoria Primary Care Clinic takes a new approach to the health center. Its two-story brick building was completely gutted by Michielli + Wyetzner Architects, adding new exam and consultation rooms in a sleek, modern form.

The cabins are open to every patient connected to the hospitals regardless of disease group, and reservations are managed through a booking system.

Bath House photographed in a hospital in Germany by James Farmer.

Patients stores their suitcases in the attic at Bolivar State Hospital in Bolivar, Tennessee.

The auditorium at Connecticut Valley State Hospital in Middletown was called Noble Hall.

This space-age device is an electroencephalograph and was photographed at the Clarinda State Hospital in Clarinda, Iowa.

The cemetery at the Connecticut Valley State Hospital in Middletown is like something out of Poe.

The lower-level guest room, which makes inventive use of a hospital curtain.

Unclaimed copper cremation urns line the walls of a storeroom in the Oregon State Hospital in Salem.

Buffalo_W/bottom 001

The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s new building, the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center, brought an empathetic and curatorial eye to civic architecture by inviting 70 artists to create more than 500 on-site installations. "The intent (and hope) of the art and architecture program was to uplift the spirit of the patient and the visitor as they arrive here at the hospital, to relieve that initial stress."

This lone bathtub against a sea of tile was used by patients at Fairfield State Hospital in Newtown, Connecticut.

Jacket 001

British designer John Pawson transformed a convent and hospital into a medieval-meets-modern luxury stay.

Here you can see the massive construction going on at Victoria Hospital just behind Maggie's Center.

Ed Slattery, seen here with his son Matthew, wanted to create a sustainable home that is accessible without feeling like a hospital.

Although the cabin is a part of the hospital campus, special care has been taken to make sure its secluded location allows it to have an identity of its own.

Fabric hangs from the wall in this remodeled dormitory ward at the Harlem Valley State Hospital in Wingdale, New York.

Apparently Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York, had a bowling alley, replete with a battery of old shoes.

California Pacific Medial Center - Cathedral Hill Hospital by SmithGroup Honor Award for Integrated Project Delivery

Just a short walk away from two of Norway’s largest hospitals in Oslo resides a tranquil forest featuring the trickling Sognsvann Creek. It’s in this lush oasis that Norwegian architectural and design firm Snøhetta has built the Outdoor Care Retreat, associated with the Friluftssykehuset Foundation. The project allows nature to provide a healing respite for patients who’ve been kept in isolation. For that purpose, the interiors have been left relatively bare, in stark contrast to the crowded, tall hospital buildings they’re associated with.

Agate Pass Cabin | In the powder room, a former hospital cart was redesigned into a stainless steel sink and cabinet | Glass relites in the staircase risers act as a window providing natural light and views into the garden.