BIG designs hospice in Denmark as "village for life's final days"

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https://www.dezeen.com/2025/02/13/sankt-lukas-hospice-lukashuset-big/





Danish studio BIG has unveiled its designs for a palliative care centre and hospice in Denmark, set to be built with wood and reclaimed bricks. Planted outdoor spaces and sensory gardens will be interspersed throughout Sankt Lukas Hospice and Lukashuset, aiming to create calming settings with a village-like feel. "Instead of the linear corridors of hospitals, we have created an environment of smaller buildings arranged around protected natural gardens," said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels. "The result is a kind of condensed village for life's final days."





Sankt Lukas Hospice and Lukashuset will comprise two buildings with pitched roofs designed to echo the architecture nearby. According to BIG, it will be Denmark's first day hospice – a type of care facility for terminally ill patients to attend during the day – and fulfil the needs of around 2,100 patients annually.





While the hospice will be dedicated to adult patients, the Lukashuset building will provide care for children and contain private spaces for families. A community gathering space will be located at the centre of both buildings. Yellow bricks repurposed from former buildings on the site will be used to construct the buildings, as well as structural timber frames and wood panelling.





A landscaped garden with sensory spaces, rainwater ponds and winding pathways will surround the hospices, aiming to form a buffer zone between them and the city. "A hospice provides the framework for the final moments of a person's life," said Ingels. "It becomes our world before we depart." "We have sought to create a peaceful and poetic environment where one can find tranquillity and an opportunity to immerse oneself in the world around us," he continued. "We have chosen living materials with organic textures that age beautifully over time."

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1. will they offer you real strawberry jam

on toast in front of a giant screen showing you endless fields of flowers and streams and beautiful fjords