An architecture for modern nerves: Josef Hoffmann's Purkersdorf Sanatorium
Topp, Leslie (1997) An architecture for modern nerves: Josef Hoffmann's Purkersdorf Sanatorium. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 56 (4), pp. 414-437. ISSN 0037-9808.
Abstract
This reexamination of Josef Hoffmann's Purkersdorf Sanatorium (Purkersdorf, Austria, 1904-1905) takes as its starting point the fact that Hoffmann's building was built as part of a complex founded by the psychologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing as a sanatorium for nervous ailments. Krafft-Ebing believed that the modern metropolis was ruining the nervous health of its inhabitants and called for the widespread establishment of sanatoriums to treat the nervous case. The article proposes that Krafft-Ebing's appeal to the healing power of light, air, nature, simplicity, and regularity influenced Hoffmann's design for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium. Also influential, it argues, was the fact that around 1900 the scientific basis of Krafft-Ebing's physical approach to neurosis was being shaken by Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic method. The self-consciously "technological" aspects of Hoffmann's design helped to reinforce the perception among patients that their ailments were being treated in a rational, fact-based manner.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Depositing User: | Sarah Hall |
| Date Deposited: | 31 Jul 2018 08:10 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:43 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/23362 |
Statistics
Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.
Archive Staff Only (login required)
 |
Edit/View Item |