Book dossier

Innovations in hospice architecture

by Stephen Verderber

"This fully revised, new edition of Innovations in Hospice Architecture responds to the need for an up-to-date, theoretically based reference book summarizing key historical and recent developments with respect to this rapidly evolving building type. It presents: an overview of the historical origins of the contemporary hospice the diverse variations on the basic premise of hospice care a review of the scant architectural literature published on this subject to date a broad series of case studies of exemplary hospices around the world planning and design concepts for palliative care environments. Case study projects are from Japan, Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia, Indonesia, China, the United States, and South America. The case studies are individually presented and comparatively analysed, and prognostications for the future of hospice architecture are discussed. Each case includes floor plans, technical drawings and beautiful, full colour photography. Through the in-depth discussion of the inner profundities of hospice architecture, the book presents this as a humane, genuine expression of the spiritual, physical and psychosocial dimensions of the contemporary death and dying movement. Written with a broad audience in mind, the book provides both technical and conceptual information, blending narrative, images, and diagrammation so that the audience may understand, and articulate that understanding in any professional setting"--