NORD Architects Copenhagen

The Urban Hospice is developed together with the deaconess community as a place that provides a peaceful environment in an urban setting for people who need palliative treatment. The building design both reflects and supports the idea of architecture as a healing factor, which help create a positive, relaxed and supporting atmosphere among patients, relatives and staff. We designed the building in close cooperation with the client and users through a co-creation process that has had a major impact on the final design and created an inclusive hospice that holds opportunity for both community and privacy at the same time.

In the winning competition entry "Alzheimer village" everything is arranged to accommodate a gradual inclusion of people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease and their relatives in a center that contains familiar elements from the residents' previous lives. These recognizable urban elements, such as a local shop, hairdresser, restaurants, cultural center and healthcare center are positioned as small houses in a beautiful landscape – all designed with inspiration from local building tradition, which gives residents a sense of being able to maintain a relatively normal and undisturbed everyday life in an otherwise confusing new reality.