Medical health buildings evaluation is the resultant of the evaluation of psychiatric thought and social evolution.
The concept of psychiatric asylums starts in the 17th century in England with the establishment of a general hospital and takes the form of today through the work of Tuke, Franco Basaglia and Freud.
A lot of research has taken place on the behavior and the needs of mentally ill people and the impact of the changing, through centuries, urban environments.
In the beginning mentally ill patients are treated like animals and in the course of time and medical evaluation these patients start to be treated like human beings with special needs.
With the upgrading in medicine and the recognition of psychiatry and psychoanalysis as branches of medicinal Science, we have the upgrading in the functionalism and construction of psychiatric asylums.
Issues like the size of clinics, their physical setting and the needs of these patients for human spatial behavior, security and humanistic approach, start playing an important role.
Aesthetics, through decoration, color, together with functionalism, spark off substantial changes in the planning and housing system and physical settings become part of the treatment.
Together with the humanistic approach of the problem, planning and construction principles, which would relegate to the effort for proper medical health buildings, are given shortly in this project. The main principle was to have buildings that would not resemble in the least to the asylums of the past.
In General Hospitals, mentally ill patients are given the necessary medication but housing in institutional buildings “houses” provides both: medication and a more relaxed and friendly environment.
In Greece mentally ill patients are hospitalized in Psychiatric Hospitals, general hospitals, mental Health Institutions or are offered the services of special community services.
Trying to carry out my research I was given permission to the psychiatric clinics in General Hospitals in Thessalonica. Consequently I decided to transfer the field of my research to a place with a very sensitive group of population. Schools. I worked with young students 12-13 years old. Through their project and the contact I had with their teachers I had the chance to experience the work carried out by Κ.Δ.Α.Υ(Diagnostic, Valuation, Supportive Centers) for young students with learning difficulties and problematic behavior. Planning, size and physical setting, become a matter of crucial importance, when these special patients are young children.