Architectural and Social Isolation: Quarantine Buildings from the 12th-19th Centuries

This study focusses on the emergence, development, and institutionalization of quarantine architecture, aiming to understand how buildings have played a pivotal role in epidemic governance. The selection of this theme stems from contemporary society's renewed exposure of spatial requirements and vulnerabilities during pandemics, as well as the profound differences in how various societies in the past perceived and confronted contagious disease. This thesis first outlines the major epidemic contexts from the 12th to the 19th centuries, examining diachronically how origins and transmission were perceived, and their social and political consequences. It demonstrates that these perceptions directly influenced the emergence of isolation spaces and the evolution of architectural forms. Research indicates that quarantine architecture was not a passive by-product of medical knowledge advancement, but rather a spatial response shaped by the intricate interplay of fear, mobility, and order. Whether leprosarium grounded in religious symbolism, Lazaretto centered on isolation practices, or the standardized, permanent quarantine stations within nineteenth-century imperial networks, their spatial layouts, boundary configurations, and circulation systems all embodied societal imaginations and responses to risk and governance. These structures have gradually evolved from temporary emergency facilities into institutionalized, replicable public health infrastructure. This study contends that isolation architecture not only safeguarded cities during crises but also propelled the formation of modern urban governance systems and public health infrastructure. Re-examining this architectural typology helps to fill gaps in architectural history and deepens our understanding of how buildings regulate social order during crises.