Architecture of healthcare and social inclusion in interwar Czechoslovakia: Pezinok Psychiatric Institute and the Masaryk Institute for Young People with Intellectual and Physical Disabilities in Bratislava

Abstract

Abstract The formation of an independent Czechoslovak Republic created a space for the institutionalisation of health and social care as a reflection of the government’s social policy. It became crucial to modernise and expand the network of health and social facilities. Although there were medical advances in institutional care for people with mental and physical disabilities, attempts at social inclusion were rare. Few innovative institutions existed that pioneered social inclusion of clients through proper education and adaptable architecture. This topic, as reflected in the architecture of the Institute for People with Nervous and Mental Health Disorders in Pezinok and the Masaryk Institute for Young People with Intellectual and Physical Disabilities in Bratislava, is the focus of this paper. The Pezinok Institute was the first clinic in central Europe to offer treatment of children with epilepsy. It was believed that elementary education and practical skills would socialise clients, adapt them to general society, and decrease their dependence on the government and their relatives. So, in addition to effective work therapy and hippotherapy, the institute also planned to educate clients in the envisaged school. The Masaryk Institute, as the first of its kind in Slovakia, aimed not only to establish institutional health and social care of people with both intellectual and physical disabilities, but also to integrate them into the society. Its initiator, Karol Koch, was convinced that it was indispensable to adapt the architecture to the needs of the people with disabilities, while not allowing the people with disabilities to feel that their environment differs from that of the others. The innovative nature of the institute’s programme was imprinted in its progressive functionalist design. This paper aims to identify crucial problems, confront visions and reality, and to prove that, despite difficulties and minor results, even at that time, there were innovative architectural and medical reflections on the needs of people with disabilities.