Kay Blair Hospice
academic
Architecture
2022
Our place of dignity and peaceful reflection
Designed to be more than just a space, but as the last place on earth one rests before they move on. A place to confront the matter of death, not only as the one on the journey, but the ones who say farewell as well.
project Context
a natural fit
Situated on the northern outskirts in the city of Brampton, Ontario; this project is structured between a suburban residential area and the undeveloped natural landscape.
Within its immediate vicinity, a baseball park and an existing marsh with littered with abundant local flora, covered by a green canopy.
Due to the local aging population and limited availability of hospice care centres, Blair Hospice will be vital project for the area.
Concept
What is closure?
The Kay Blair project was initially motivated by the following question:
"How might a building allude to the emotional and intangible needs of its occupants, especially to the magnitude of the matter of death?"
Drawing from this initial motivation, a natural direction pushed the project. To understand closure and what it really means to find closure.
Through an extensive process of research, exploration, and development it led to this conclusion.
To wander and to reflect is to facilitate closure.
To seek closure through wander.
To develop the conditions for wander to occur
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A journey must be observed: Visual permeance must be present
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Places of pause: destinations must exist to facilitate wander
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Reflection: destinations to ripen conditions for introspection and comfort
Distilling human behaviour into form and function
An intention to inspire wander
Two qualities are vital for this behaviour
The wanderlust qualities of a garden and the spiritual/reflective qualities of a place of faith are intertwined.
In the context of Kay Blair Hospice, the circulatory design is the proponent vehicle to deliver such qualities.
Occupants are given a multitude of options, instead of just moving directly to space to space, indirect paths can also be made; just like a garden.
All of which is to transcend the typical needs of a hospice, to sow the seeds of closure and therefore acceptance.
Execution
High-level Rationale and response
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Initial Site
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Primary Grid
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Secondary Grid
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Isolation
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Entry Points
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Residents
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Wander
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Spatial Organization
Materiality and Tectonics
Three Primary materials
Providing a sense of security and grounded presence with solid concrete.
Warming and lifting the space with the contrast of mass timber rising to the sky.
Lastly, brick is laid to consolidate the two, which is also a nod to the traditional residential proximity and atmosphere.
Project Drawings
Ground Plan
