The Impact of Architecture on Seville’s Residents
Week 3 Heading link
Marilen Garcia, MS Student; Claudia Palarz, BSN Student; and Dhriti Patel, BSN Student
Spain’s architecture displays beautiful artwork and represents the ancient history that molded the city of Seville so it is no surprise that we were guided to go visit many of these structures including the Alcazar Palace and Plaza de España.
The Royal Palace of Alcazar was a beauty with a heavy influence of Moor culture. For example, a lot of the walls had Arabic writing engraved into the walls. Everything at the palace had a meaning and history behind it, all the way from the pattern of the tiles, the color palette used, the types of arches built, and the symbols engraved on the walls.
Plaza de España, or the Spain Square, is an architectural structure built to represent Spain and its accomplishments in industry and technology. The plaza is a half open circle to signify the open arms of the country of Spain with alcoves representing each city or province of Spain. Within the plaza, there are four bridges over the moat which represent the ancient kingdoms of Spain: Castile, Navarre, Aragon, and Leon. In the middle of the plaza is a fountain built by the architect Vicente Traver.
These grand pieces of architecture demonstrate an important history within Seville and its culture. In the same way, other everyday buildings and structures are a representation of Seville’s culture. For instance, the hospital we visited, Vithas Hospital, had hospital rooms designed to make a patient feel more at home. To give it this environment, there are less buttons and devices built into the wall compared to hospital rooms in the United States. Instead, they are replaced with picture frames which provide a “homey” feeling. Additionally, the hallways are clear and do not have any crash carts or any other hospital equipment present. The hospital equipment is kept behind an area behind the nurse’s station. Bed rails are also not heavily enforced which makes the patients less restricted thus giving them more freedom. This environment allows for more positive attitudes among the patients and improves their overall quality of care.