Waiora Healing Home : creating better quality of life for children with life-limiting and terminal illnesses in N.Z.

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can architecture make a positive contribution to palliative and hospice care for children in order to enhance their quality of life?

ABSTRACT: What does wellbeing and dying well mean? Hospitals are for treatment and the purpose of getting well, often lacking the holistic care that focuses on wellbeing. Hospices provide end-of-life care and are about dying well, while respite provides care for the patient and enables a break for the primary carer. Palliative care, in turn provides the comfort and support needed for the patient and their family during the battle of life-threatening or life-limiting illnesses. Ongoing reviews indicate that New Zealand has minimal targeted hospice and respite care for children, services that currently exist retrofitting into a building and existing framework. The project aims to facilitate a child-centric focus, which currently has not been a major focus of current hospices. Hospitals are renowned for institutional long corridors, bland, uncomfortable interiors, harsh lighting, maintain a busy environment and tend to have no place for the family to stay immediately with their child during their stay appropriately.

Two key aspects that are often overlooked architecturally in the healthcare sector are the integration of the natural environment using blue (water) space and green (biophilic) space, creating visual and physical connections with the outdoors. Social interaction; integrating family into the process along with the ability to connect with those in similar circumstances and create a sense of community. Research from well recognised architectural writers such as Charles Jencks and Steven Verderber expresses how social interaction, the creation of community and connection to nature plays a vital role in the process of heal - ing. The need for a purpose-built hospice and respite sympathetic to the needs of New Zealand children and their families is apparent. The purpose of this research is through the exploration of biophilic design concepts and patient-centered design, to create a more comfortable and positive healing environment that breaks down barriers around illnesses and creates dignified exits. The project will utilise design elements that encourage a holistic view of healthcare and create an advocate for change in the health care sector.