Taking Care. I segni del cambiamento

Architectural design has always provided an opportunity to bring together key social, cultural and technological imperatives, translating them into spaces capable of welcoming, nurturing and generating new perspectives. Healthcare architecture, in particular, reflects collective changes: here, medical research meets the challenges of sustainability, inclusivity and physical and mental wellbeing, opening up new design possibilities.

Designing healthcare infrastructure today means rethinking the very role of architecture: no longer merely a response to functional needs, but an expression of social, ethical and civic responsibility. In an era of profound global transformation, Architecture for Health acts as a laboratory for experimentation, where different disciplines converge to imagine possible futures focused not only on the treatment of illness, but on the promotion of genuinely holistic wellbeing.

TAKING CARE. I segni del cambiamento explores the relationship between architecture, health and society through the signs that, over time, have shaped healthcare and the built environment. Following Jacques Attali’s theoretical framework, care is understood not only as a medical practice, but as a symbolic, bodily, technical and informational order. Through a dialogue between historical case studies, contemporary projects and experiments, the exhibition highlights the evolution of care from ritual and community-based practices to contemporary environments, which are increasingly technological and data-driven.

The exhibition is structured around five themes:

• the sign of the gods, in which care is conceived as a sacred and communal act;
• the sign of bodies, in which the body becomes a subject to be protected and organised;
• the sign of machines, in which the hospital establishes itself as a technical infrastructure;
• the sign of codes, in which data and networks redefine the spaces of care;
• the sign of the future, which explores emerging scenarios and advanced technologies.

These signs do not follow one another in a linear fashion, but rather come into tension, overlap and continue to coexist. The exhibition invites us to recognise them in the spaces we inhabit and to ask ourselves how and where ‘care’ is constructed today.

Curators

Stefano Capolongo, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering

Pilar Guerrieri, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies