Nieuwe Instituut
Nieuwe Instituut

Sonneveld House

Book Presentation: Sick Architecture

In Sick Architecture, essays explore the relationship between health crises and architecture, from ancient Greece to the present day, including the recent pandemic. To celebrate the book’s publication, editors Beatriz Colomina, Guillermo Arsuaga and Nick Axel will join a discussion with authors Mark Wigley and Simon De Nys-Ketels.

12 March 2026 18:30 - 20:00

Influenza patients at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas, at the beginning of the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu epidemic. Image: National Museum of Health and Medicine.

According to the authors of Sick Architecture, the built environment is shaped by past diseases and plagues, as well as the fear, misunderstandings, prejudices and innovations associated with them. When a new epidemic occurs, it takes place in buildings and cities that were designed according to the logic of previous outbreaks. We often forget that we live in successive examples of ‘sick architecture’, yet an analysis of the complex relationships between illness, space, territory, technology, politics and biology has much to teach us.

In 35 essays, Sick Architecture explores moments in world history when evolving notions of health influenced architectural practice and discourse, and when architecture itself served as a carrier and transmitter of disease.

Language: English | Location: Nieuwe Instituut | Tickets: € 12,50 / 7,50 / 6,25 / 0,-

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