Hospice & palliative care facility, Hospice & palliative care facility, Dharamshala

Abstract

‘Nowhere are the effects of bad design more heartbreaking or the opportunity for good design more compelling than at the end of life. There are no do-overs.’ -B.J. Millier There is growing discomfort in our generation with the concept of ‘death’. Contrastingly, from the earlier years, where death and dying was accepted as a part of the circle of life, nowadays, death from an illness is seen as failure of the modern medicine, with people tying incessantly to postpone it, sometimes so much so that it reduces the ‘life’ from the life of the patients. ‘Hospice’ is the typology that effectively answers this modern day problem. Trying to provide a ‘good quality of life’ to patients who are declared terminal and who do not want to continue the intrusive procedures, the hospice provides residency and therapies to its users. However, because of the taboos associated with the concept, especially with how often people consider it to be ‘morbid’ or ‘promoting death’, the design of the hospice typology has not evolved much over the years. The thesis focuses on the psychological needs of the patients when entering the hospice and effectively designs spaces that not just answers those needs but tries to provide something more. The concept is based on a humanitarian idea, an idea that the physical features of the facility had to support emotional and mental health. A chance at a meaningful experience through understanding the ‘lived experiences’ of patients and the demography of the context of the site.