Fabrications· 2026Q2
Care Work as Architectural Research: The Construction of Early Hospice Architecture, 1957–1980
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- Q2SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Early hospice architecture in the UK, US, and Canada (1957-1980) was co-developed with the care philosophy it housed, with architects gaining knowledge through embodied experience and relationships.
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Key points
- Modern hospice architecture co-evolved with the hospice philosophy, not just as a container but as a tool for its development.
- The design of St. Christopher's, Connecticut, and Royal Victoria Hospices helped founders solidify their approach to palliative care.
- Embodied experience, relationships, and care work were key to generating architectural knowledge in this field.
- Transnational, interdisciplinary, and feminist methods were foundational to creating these early hospice architectures.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
In the mid-twentieth century, Cicely Saunders, Florence Wald, and Balfour Mount helped establish the modern hospice and palliative care movement, developing an approach to end-of-life care that prioritised comprehensive care for the dying person rather than the treatment of disease alone. This paper proposes that the adaptation of Saunders’ hospice philosophy to the US and Canadian contexts by Wald and Mount was bolstered and reified by – and through – architecture. The experience of designing St. Christopher’s Hospice (Sydenham, UK), the Connecticut Hospice (Branford, USA), and the Palliative Care Service at the Royal Victoria Hospital (Montreal, Canada) helped these founders crystallise the philosophy itself. Embodied experience, relationships, and care work were central to understanding architecture and developing architectural knowledge. Using correspondence between Saunders, Wald, and Mount, this paper demonstrates the foundational role that transnational, interdisciplinary, and feminist modes of architectural production played in the creation of hospice architectures in the three countries.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Fabrications, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Architecture
ArchitectureEngineering