Herzog & de Meuron | Baas Arquitectura | Casa Solo Arquitectos | Nord Architects | 3RW Arkitekter | Witherford Watson Mann | Clancy Moore | Irene Barclay | Ecomimesis Solues Ecolgicas | Adamo FaidenFor most of us, life begins in a hospital and is likely to end in a medical facility too. We visit hospitals during our lives if not for a broken arm or surgery, then for an unwell loved one.Although healthcare is a universal need, access is deeply unequal. The most impressive new hospital buildings, such as Herzog & de Meurons new Kinderspital Zrich, are typically built in wealthy urban centres, and their replicability is questionable. In Catalonia, the public healthcare system has been commissioning primary care centres in the regions smaller towns to improve proximity to facilities while alleviating pressure on the larger complexes.Hospitals and other medical facilities are not the only architectures of health. Interwar social housing advocate Irene Barclay identified houses that are dangerous and injurious to health in her reports of Londons so-called slums. In Rio de Janeiro, the municipality is creating new urban parks so that deprived communities may escape the heat to exercise and socialise. For the first time in a century, the water of Irelands Avoca River is running clear, due to a new treatment plant designed by Clancy Moore.A healthy building supports human life, as well as other living organisms, argues Beatriz Colomina in her keynote. This is not restricted to architectures end users but those who build it too. UK construction workers died at a greater rate than nurses in 2020, Charlotte Banks writes. It is a stark reminder that, even at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the building industry will value profit over human health unless continually and tirelessly checked.1520: Healthcover (above) Damien HirstAs part of a larger group of works featuring shrine-like wall-mounted pill cabinets, Damien Hirsts When the Heart Speaks (2005) explores the boundaries of human belief and challenges societys reliance on drugs as a universal cure. Credit: Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2025 / Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd / Courtesy the artist and Gagosianfolio (lead image) Tobias CohenIn Maaseh Tuviyah, a 1708 scientific reference book by rabbi-physician Tobias Cohen, the human body isimagined not as a proverbial temple, but as afour-storey house with an attic for a head, kitchen for a belly, and plumbing and water features for excretion. Credit: Wikimedia / Houghton Library / Harvard UniversitykeynoteA bugs lifeBeatriz ColominabuildingChildrens hospital by Herzog & de Meuron in Zrich, SwitzerlandVera SacchettibuildingRadiotherapy and hemodialysis centre by Baas Arquitectura and Casa Solo Arquitectos in Granollers, SpainRafael Gmez-MorianaessayPride without prejudiceTorsten LangebuildingFuruset Hageby dementia village by Nord Architects and 3RW Arkitekter in Oslo, NorwayFeliks Ulven IsaksenbuildingAppleby Blue almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann in London, UKCatherine SlessoroutrageBuilding killsCharlotte BanksbuildingWastewater treatment plant by Clancy Moore in Arklow, IrelandEleanor BeaumontreputationsIrene BarclayMarianna JanowiczbuildingParque Realengo by Ecomimesis Solues Ecolgicas, Ayako Arquitetura, Helena Meirelles Arquitetura, Larissa Monteiro, Messina Rivas and Zebulun Arquitetura in Rio de Janeiro, BrazilFrancesco Perrotta-BoschbuildingGuayaquil veterinary clinic by Adamo Faiden in Buenos Aires, ArgentinaMagdalena TagliabueessayThe hospital of the future?Annmarie Adams