Hospice -
Home for the
Terminally ill

The “Silent Threshold” proposal illustrates an innovative design for a small-scale day hospice, creating a sanctuary transitioning from the city’s communal life into the quiet of nature. The materiality of the structure and use of light and water emphasize this contrast and create sensory-rich human-scale places for retreat.

The Silent Threshold stands out for its ability to translate an incredibly delicate program into architecture that is both elemental and deeply humane. The use of a single recycled-brick wall as a mediating threshold is powerful—quiet, grounded, and symbolic—while the sequence of spaces around the courtyard, water garden, and chapel creates a serene atmosphere that honors contemplation, coexistence, and care. The drawings and material studies are exquisite, and the spatial narrative feels effortless. A project that truly understands its purpose and elevates it through design.

The idea of using a wall as a threshold between shared life and the forest is strong, with clear and thoughtful reasoning behind the material choices.

A beautifully considered and innovative courtyard hospice typology. The proposal is anchored by a single elemental wall of recycled brick—an elegant, strategic move that clarifies the diagram, organizes the plan, and establishes a strong architectural identity. The dialogue between warm timber structure and the solidity of brick produces a rich spatial and tactile experience, while the bold geometric cuts set up a compelling contrast with the softer scenography of the water feature. The scheme responds sensitively to its lakeside setting at the forest edge in Zehlendorf, using the courtyard as a calibrated threshold between the energy of the city and the calm of the woodland. Orientation strategies appear intelligent, supporting light, outlook, and seasonal comfort while maintaining a sense of shelter.

The proposal is thoughtfully developed and organized around an active courtyard and more contemplative spaces beyond a symbolic threshold. Diagrams communicate design ideas clearly, and interior spaces suggest light-filled settings with views to the courtyard and forest. Living and dining areas might benefit from additional openings to increase daylight. The circular aperture is an important design element with symbolic potential beyond the movement of water; strengthening its spatial axis could further enhance its meaning within the scheme. The wall’s role as threshold is powerful, though its degree of separation raises questions about whether it becomes too strong a barrier.

Environmental thinking is embedded both materially and conceptually, with the recycled brick wall functioning as both environmental mediator and planning device. The integration of water as sensory and ecological infrastructure is particularly meaningful. Presentation is exceptionally strong: drawings are clear and readable, and the visualizations communicate atmosphere and care without spectacle. Overall, the proposal demonstrates sensitivity, clarity, and a mature understanding of hospice environments.

The proposal is commendable for its clear and disciplined organizational strategy, distinctly articulating the support functions and primary patient spaces. This clarity allows the project to provide privacy and protection where needed, while still situating patients within a poetic and uplifting environment. Importantly, the design also acknowledges the well-being of staff, creating spaces that support their daily experience and emotional resilience. Despite its layered programmatic structure, the project remains thoughtfully connected to the broader urban fabric. Patients and caregivers are not isolated from the city, but instead remain gently anchored to it—preserving a sense of belonging rather than estrangement. The inclusion of community-oriented programs, such as spaces for volunteer education and even a kindergarten, is particularly meaningful, extending the role of the hospice beyond care alone and reinforcing reciprocal relationships between the facility and the city.

The “Within Reach” proposal reimagines hospice care by redefining the relationship between death, the city, and daily life. The spatial structure unfolds through concentric rings that progress from the individual to the community, with special attention also to families and caregivers’ needs. The clear concept and detailed design illustrate a prototype, replicable and scalable model that can be embedded within diverse urban fabrics.

The intention to place the hospice spatially and functionally within a busy urban neighborhood is laudable, as is the idea of creating small neighborhoods for clients and their families and integrating generous green spaces into the proposal. However, the scheme is also characterized by excessive circulation space and a lack of clear architectural order.

An insightful and conceptually ambitious proposal that reframes hospice architecture through the notion of the “nearby,” positioning end-of-life care as continuous with everyday life rather than separated from it. The concentric organizational strategy is both legible and philosophically resonant, establishing a calm inner world of care units, chapel, and landscape beneath a luminous roof structure while surrounding it with progressively more public layers. The integration within a dense urban neighborhood is persuasive, demonstrating how proximity to community and nature can reduce the social isolation often associated with dying. Material choices rooted in reclaimed brick traditions connect the building to its urban context while expressing ideas of circularity and repair. Communication is consistently strong, with drawings that clearly reinforce the spatial logic and visualizations that balance domestic comfort with a sense of quiet transition.

This project demonstrates strong ethical clarity by reintegrating end-of-life care into the everyday urban fabric with dignity and precision. Its prototypical and scalable “five-minute city” logic, combined with a layered architectural framework, transforms hospice architecture from an isolated typology into a deeply integrated civic and social infrastructure.

This proposal is clearly organized by a courtyard with surrounding shared spaces. Attention is given to daylight, views, sectional qualities, and building form, leading to intriguing interior spatial experiences that are well represented in the perspective drawings. The explanatory text reflects a meaningful grounding in what end-of-life care should be, and these ideas are clearly represented in the proposal. An enticing proposal.

This project thoughtfully presents hospice as a shared emotional space, recognizing patients and families as a single care unit and translating this idea into a calm, community-oriented spatial system and passive design logic.

The proposal demonstrates a thoughtful intention to foster a sense of community, with spaces conceived to encourage connection and shared experience. Several areas are handled with particular care, resulting in moments of genuine spatial quality and visual refinement. While the scheme may not fully resolve all aspects of the brief, its commitment to creating a communal and well-considered environment is both evident and commendable.

This proposal is well considered at various scales: from locational and organizational diagrams to building construction details. The building design expands thoughtfully to the entire site, including a greenhouse and garden plot, retention pond, bicycle and vehicular parking, and location for trash containers. Exterior spaces are meaningful and well-shaped, especially the entrance transition. The building presents itself legibly as a group of four volumes which relate to one another easily and with simple but well-proportioned elevations. The integration of circulation into programmatic habitable spaces in the common area on the ground floor is laudable. Consideration is given to issues of sustainability through choice of materials and construction.

An inventive and genuinely unconventional response that proposes a new hospice typology: “architecture in motion.” The idea of a mobile hospice; using rail-guided structures, mobile platforms, and responsive spatial systems; shifts users from passive recipients to active participants, framing movement as dignified, therapeutic, and empowering. The proposal is both refined architecturally and bold in its conceptual agenda, successfully challenging the default marginalisation of hospices at the urban periphery. The reuse of disused railway lines is a compelling and well-justified site strategy. These linear corridors; once connective infrastructure; are reactivated as accessible terrains whose gentle gradients naturally support limited mobility. The specific South London railway corridor appears well understood, with a convincing strategy for reopening connections, organising access points, and using the line as a civic armature that can re-stitch adjacent neighbourhoods.

Creative approach to address mobility concerns and elegant echo with the site selection.

This proposal suggests a hospice facility reminiscent of trains and train stations. The inviting building is appropriately small in scale, partly due to its order of parallel linear volumes that receive ample daylight and are interspersed by various outdoor spaces. Locating a hospice facility on the site of an abandoned railway line within a residential neighborhood may well have revitalizing and connecting effects. However, the question remains whether moving clients along a re-envisioned ‘train track’ to ‘far away’ activities will lead to alleviating physical and emotional strain.

The project’s sustainability is primarily infrastructural and regenerative: adaptive reuse of existing rail corridors, landscape-led revitalisation into a linear park, and a model that reduces the need for new isolated hospice campuses. The emphasis on walkable and rollable connectivity and shared civic amenity suggests a low-impact, socially sustainable approach, though the submission could strengthen this further by clarifying operational energy, material cycles, and maintenance implications of the mobile systems. The presentation is soft, clear, and atmospheric, successfully conveying the project’s social intent and experiential qualities. Diagrams and visuals communicate the corridor strategy effectively. The main opportunity is to include one 'hero' image or explanatory sectional perspective that captures the originality of the moving hospice architecture at a glance. A strong and socially conscious interpretation of the hospice brief that treats care as integrated urban infrastructure rather than secluded retreat.