The design team's initial step was to get a feel for the people who utilize the 6,700 square foot house and the nature of hospice work. We spent many hours talking to staff and volunteers about how they spend their days, and what they needed in their workspace. We explored ideas about patterns, space, relational settings, color, gardens, client service needs, volunteer space needs, reception areas and overall space.
As we completed the planning process with staff, the design for the new house emerged, and we produced a plan that integrated all the features needed: Easy access to services in the house for patients, family members and bereavement clients, adequate work space for staff and volunteers, a room designed for children's grief and play therapy, necessary parking, storage space, a meeting room large enough for caregiver and bereavement volunteer training and meetings, the warmth and ambiance of a home, street visibility and exposure, a Meditation Chapel for memorial services and remembering and an increased ability for greater service to the community.
What is exciting about the Hospice House design is how the needed functional elements of the house are surrounded with a spirit that is revealed through the architectural forms that give it structure. From the outside, the house reflects balance and symmetry. Its expansive face depicts unity with the multiplicity of windows and dormers. The front arbor and porch receive and reflect the invitation to enter, and to give comfort and protection to the user.
The relationship with the natural environment is an integral part of the design of the house. Light's cycles of renewal are experienced through the central atrium and the Meditation Chapel in a dramatic play of light. The Reflection Wall in the garden outside the Meditation Chapel is integrated into the design as it reflects light and energy back into the house. The round form of the Meditation Chapel was chosen to symbolize the circle of life that is central to hospice care and reflects an image of no beginning and no end. The Community Room or "Hospes Room" was designed on an east/west axis to obtain various qualities of solar energy at different times of the day. The ceiling in the Hospes Room helps display the room's qualities of space, and the windows reflect light on the wall tiles that honor and memorialize loved ones.
We feel the design of the Hospice House does add to the quality of the workplace for both staff and clients, and promotes a vision for future healthcare places.
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