Foreword: Isolated, yet connected

Abstract

Guest editor Uğurgül Tunç explores the paradoxical pasts, presents, and futures of the built environment of health/care: In the 1980s, Roger Ulrich's landmark study "View through a window may influence recovery from surgery," popularized the idea that hospital rooms offering views of greenery helped patients recover faster post-surgery. However, this notion was nothing new. From the ancient Greek Asclepieia to the Ottoman darüşşifas, vegetation has been incorporated into healing spaces for centuries. The longue durée of the built environment of health/care tells us that the exploration into architecture's therapeutic potential did not begin with the advent of Evidence-Based Design (EBD) in the 1980s. The research presented in this issue of the Cellar Architectural Journal historicizes and interrogates the past, present, and future of the built environment's role as a determinant of health.