[Buildings for mental patients: from the architecture of isolation to the architecture of integration].

Traditional psychiatric hospitals designed for several thousand patients are very far from contributing to rapid recovery of the patients. Current investigations have demonstrated that such hospitals should be replaced by small rehabilitation centers designed for a minor number of patients (several dozens). The architecture of new psychiatric hospitals should fully comply with the treatment purposes. Thus, the hospital should have little comfortable wards, a large number of rooms for recreation purposes as well as provide accommodation for meetings with relatives and friends. Psychiatric hospitals should represent small institutions of the familial type.