Evolution of Field Hospitals as an Architectural Response to Modern Threats

Abstract The current global situation is characterised by economic, climatic and demographic instability, which has been exacerbated in recent years by the pandemic, various natural disasters and, most importantly, wars. These events place specific demands on architects, especially those who design rapid response architecture represented by field hospitals, both those located on the battlefield and those not far from residential areas. The purposes of this paper is to describe in detail the development of facilities of this type, with a particular focus on solutions that form semi-settlement systems, and to identify the ‘good design practices’ they contain. The study focuses on identifying innovative technological and spatial solutions that have emerged in this specialised design field over the 170 years of its existence. The authors used a combination of the historical and interpretive research method with the logical argumentation method, including an analysis of archival and contemporary digital resources, which provide the guidelines used in the research by design method implemented in a proprietary design of a hospital.