Health Center
. . . the explicit recognition of the life cycle as the basis for every individual life will do a great deal to help people’s health in the community—Life Cycle; this pattern describes the more specific institutions which help people to care for themselves and their health.
Problem:
More than 90 per cent of the people walking about in an ordinary neighborhood are unhealthy, judged by simple biological criteria. This ill health cannot be cured by hospitals or medicine.
Background & Research: Not Included on the site—Go read the book!
Solution:
Gradually develop a network of small health centers, perhaps one per community of 7000, across the city; each equipped to treat everyday disease—both mental and physical, in children and adults—but organized essentially around a functional emphasis on those recreational and educational activities which help keep people in good health, like swimming and dancing.
Usage:
Keep the medical teams small and independent—Small Services without Red Tape, but coordinated with each other and other clinics, like Birth Places—throughout the town. Give each center some functions that fuse with the ordinary course of local work and recreation: swimming pool, workshops, sauna, gym, vegetable garden, greenhouse. But don’t force these facilities to form a continuous “health park”—knit them together loosely with other parts of the town—Housing In Between, Local Sports, Adventure Playground, Home Workshop, Vegetable Garden. Perhaps the most important subsidiary pattern for helping people to keep healthy is the opportunity for swimming; ideally, try and put a swimming pool on every block—Still Water . . .
pg. 252