Making Hospice Space

Abstract

This chapter explores the spatial aspects of the contemporary hospice, particularly in the way its architecture and landscaping are structured to shape and manage the process of dying — for the patients themselves, for close family and friends as well as for staff. It is based on the author’s study of more than 20 hospices and cancer care centres in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scandinavia in 2007 and 2008, while researching the book, Modern Hospice Design (2009). It draws conceptually on twentieth-century writings on ‘social architecture’, particularly the development of new building types associated with health, social welfare and the rise of the modern welfare state. However, it also draws on contemporary understandings of the nature of ‘sacred space’ — and certain religious traditions informing architecture and landscape — which are brought to bear upon this particular ‘end of life’ building type, now becoming an increasingly common element in modern townscape and social provision.