Developmental Stages of Eversley Childs Sanitarium-An Urban and Architectural Approach

ABSTRACT

In the present pandemic, social distancing for health care calls for special attention. Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital (ECSGH), originally Eversley Child Sanitarium (ECS) in Metro Cebu/Philippines has been representing for decades a humane health care philosophy and built environment. In this study, the researcher inserts ECS in the typology of leprosy facilities and investigates its transition through time. He follows up the social-medical backgrounds of each spatial developmental phase. Comparing ECS with historical leprosy facilities, the researcher proves that from its foundation on, ECS has been following community-driven medical principles and realized corresponding architectural-urban features. The main finding consists in the resiliency of the Sanitarium's original design philosophy which is in position to give impulse for an incoming heritage conservation and urban rehabilitation. The researcher recommends to update the area to a modern hospital with a cluster of livable new subdivision designs in conformity with ECS' original dynamics.