Call for Papers - Urban Healthcare Architecture: Networks and Exchanges in the 20th Century

Date: Sep 27, 2025 - Oct 22, 2025

Location:

Barcelona , Spain

EAUH 2026 Conference: City Networks in Europe and Beyond (Barcelona, September 2-5, 2026)

Session 83 (Main Session): “Urban Healthcare Architecture: Networks and Exchanges in the 20th Century”

Call for Papers

We are calling for papers for our session: “Urban Healthcare Architecture: Networks and Exchanges in the 20th Century” (Session 83) at the Conference of the European Association for Urban History in Barcelona, September, 2-5, 2026.

As new ways of approaching illness took place in Europe from the mid-19th century onwards, healthcare spaces were transformed. Related architecture became visible in European cities in the 20th century, often with an impact on the urban scale too. A varied set of initiatives was seen, public and private, aimed at mental health, maternity, surgical clinics, laboratories, sanatoria, polyclinics, etc. and a modern hospital system became progressively established across the Western world.

The cross-fertilisation between medical advances and architectural and urban developments adds a particularly fruitful layer of complexity: far from universally accepted dogmas, medical and related scientific advances were often contentious and attracted strong reactions, both alliances and antagonisms. Similarly, architectural and urban developments were embraced at varying rates in different localities and interacted with deeply embedded local cultural traditions. Against this background, a range of knowledge exchanges are known to have taken place among various stakeholders, such as study tours and publications, commissioned by public administrations or private initiatives. The proposed session aims to explore the development of such exchanges relating to urban healthcare architecture, alongside formal or informal city networks across individual states and nations.

In view of recent global health crises and critical scientific developments affecting healthcare provision, including its spatial parameters, the proposed topic is of special significance. The EU-funded COST Action 22159 National, International and Transnational Histories of Healthcare, 1850-2000 (EuroHealthHist, 2023-27; https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA22159/) exemplifies the current interest in histories of exchanges across Europe. Recent historiographic publications on early 20^th-century healthcare spaces or the modern hospital highlight the current interest in the 20th century. Publications with an emphasis on urban history and health come closer to our topic but for an earlier period. Finally, critical scholarship expanding to former colonies is also emerging.

The principal questions asked are:

-         how were transnational city networks and knowledge exchanges determined and partners identified?

-         what was their impact on urban healthcare architecture? 

-     how were such networks and exchanges related to opposing tendencies, like internationalising design and resisting internationalism?

Additional questions can include:

-         what disparate trends might be discerned within individual states or nations?

-         how might national overarching tendencies have affected specific city networks across borders?

-         what has the impact of specific professional, commercial and business interests been?

-         what other forms have knowledge exchanges taken?

All paper proposals should be submitted via the conference website: https://www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu/call-for-papers/. Deadline for submitting proposals is 22 October 2025.

Funding information: This session is sponsored by COST Action CA22159, National, International and Transnational Histories of Healthcare, 1850-2000 (EuroHealthHist). The accepted papers for this session will be eligible for some COST funding. The organisers also plan to collect a special issue.

Organisers

·  Alfons Zarzoso, Institute for Research in Humanities Milà i Fontanals, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

·  Christina Malathouni, School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

·  Barry Doyle, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, United Kingdom