The asylum: a socio-cultural and architectural history

Abstract

Buildings are essentially products of our society and culture, they change in response to changes in society and help maintain many social forms. The purpose of this report is investigate the built manifestation of one such social form - the Psychiatric Hospital, and identify how changes in society's perception of Mental Illness have, historically, affected this building type. The institution that exists today in NZ originates from Europe, and the early NZ asylums were often based on European models. Over the past century buildings for asylum/mental hospitals have been designed to be purpose and sight specific. This has led to greater opportunities for architects working in this field.