The anxiety of today’s society is that the human body is perceived as constantly at risk of contamination and disease. The city itself was considered culprit, so it was treated as an ailing body that needed “surgical” treatment for its cure. During this new historical-environmental context we live in, nature is being reformatted by human actions. The post-industrial city may be considered as a factor capable of providing its own medical treatment and an instrument of well-being. In the first half of the 20th century architecture which creates a set of typologies that embody modern ideals of health and hygiene. Today’s design strategies involve repairs on the environment and therapeutic functions of architecture achieved by sophisticated solutions. Nevertheless, the demedicalization of architecture could bring solutions to the sphere of social surroundings.
Even though heterotopia is a medical term, describing the deviation from normal, Michel Foucault used it in the context of architecture categorizing heterotopias into two main types: crisis and deviation,as well as six principles that fall into these typologies. The fifth principle includes heterotopias of ritual or purification partially of religious character and partially hygienic and in order to enter it required specific rituals or gestures.
The thermal springs of Kamena Vourla presenting mesothermal and significantly radioactive waters with sodium chlorite aroused the State’s interest due to the rarity of the thermometallic waters suitable for many different illnesses. As a result, the thermal springs were established as one of the most important in Europe.
