This book offers a new, salutogenic, perspective on the development of early modern cities by exploring profound and complex ways in which architecture and landscape design served to promote public health on an urban scale. Focusing on fifteenth- through nineteenth-century Europe, it addresses the histories of spaces and institutions that supported salubrious living, highlighting the intersections of medical theory, government policy, and architectural practice in designing, improving, and monumentalizing the infrastructure of sanitation and healthcare. Studies in this book highlight the joint role of design thinking and scientific practice in reforming the facilities for treating and preventing disease; the impact of cross-cultural exchange on early modern strategies of urban improvement; and the creation of new therapeutic environments through state, communal, and private initiatives concerned with the preservation of physical and mental health, from recreational landscapes to spa resorts.

Mohammad Gharipour is Professor and Director of the Architecture Program at the University of Maryland, USA. He has received many prestigious awards and has authored, edited, and co-edited thirteen books including Persian Gardens and Pavilions (2013) and Health and Architecture (2021). He is the director and founding editor of the award-winning International Journal of Islamic Architecture, the co-founder of the Epidemic Urbanism Initiative, and the second vice president of the Society of Architectural Historians.