Rejection of Convention

Hospice is a philosophy and a type of care, which is not associated with an architectural typology. The result is most hospice inpatient facilities are designed by the rejection of certain architectural elements from hospitals, nursing facilities, and the home, and developing a design from what it is not.

The interpretation of home in conventional inpatient hospice facilities represents a utopian ideal of the home that is inherently nor ative t e l des di erent inter retations o the home as sites of family violence, intense loneliness, re ression, and finan ial hardshi ndivid als hose lives have varied ro this nor ative nderstadin ay find spaces designed in this style upsetting, belittling, or even absurd.

os itals resent the individ al s body as a a hine to fit within a purely rational space. Edwin Heathcote, architect and author, laments, “at the exact moments we are most in need o eanin and s irit al li t, e find o rselves surrounded by the bleak expression of hygiene and e ien y r e istential ate ays are ani ested as service entrances.” 1

The philosophy of hospice is to ease the pain and symptoms of the terminally ill indivudual, while tending to their emotional and spiritual needs. This philosophy necessitates an inclusion of the architectural dimension, because spatial design is a vital element in granting the individual sensory experiences, allowing the individual the dignity of living as they are dying.

Edwin Heathcote and Charles Jenks, The Architecture of Hope: Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres, Frances Lincoln, 2010