Clean air, verandas and human contact in the battle against COVID-19;A timeless approach

ABSTRACT

Architecture has played a major part in designing hospitals with layouts for space to assist in patient recovery. Rooms oriented towards the light, with large windows and openings in wide balconies were designed to let patients be in the outdoors safely in the beginning of the last century in TB hospitals. The same balconies in our hospital, in 1924 and 2020. (see pictures) A century later, in 2020, our hospital "Sotiria Thoracic Diseases Hospital of Athens" was proclaimed the central hospital in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Athens. We observed, how places that used to be sanatoriums operated during the Covid-19 era and compared the basic functions of the buildings. A major problem that appeared in the first months of the pandemic, was the shortage of protective equipment, which made everyday medical visits by the whole team of doctors difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Every day, the doctors except from visiting the rooms twice a day, visited their patients by accessing the balconies from the outside, wearing only a facemask. In conclusion, in the sudden appearance of the coronavirus in 2019, the wide balconies in our hospital proved their timeless usefulness in the fight against contagious respiratory diseases, giving patients the opportunity to see their doctors more, without spending resources of the hospital. Face to face communication, family visits and socialization, in the words of our patients, played a significant role in their psychological and overall wellbeing while being hospitalized.