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End-of-life care has long been addressed primarily from a medical perspective, often overlooking its sensory, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Today, however, these aspects are emerging as central themes in Europe and around the world, reflecting a global rethinking of hospices and spaces devoted to palliative care.
Among the most recent projects in this field is Echoes of the Void, by Segmento Urbano — a center for terminally ill patients to be built in Povoação, on the island of São Miguel, Portugal. The project expresses the idea of an architecture of transition, redefining the final stage of life not as a clinical process, but as a deeply human journey.
A similar approach — blending landscape and architecture to foster dignity, community, and serenity in dying — can be found in Bjarke Ingels Group’s (BIG) design for the Sankt Luka Hospice and Lukashuset Palliative Care Center in Denmark.
In Bangalore, in a completely different cultural and geographical context, the same sensibility is reflected in Bagchi Karunashraya (the Abode of Compassion), a palliative care hospital offering free, high-quality end-of-life care to cancer patients.
Winner of the WAFX Award 2025 in the category WAF Future Project: Health, Echoes of the Void proposes a model based not on medical functionality, but on existential empathy and integration with nature.
Set within the volcanic landscape of São Miguel, a land shaped by elemental transformation, the project draws a powerful parallel between the natural cycle of creation and dissolution and the human experience of mortality.
The spatial organization, inspired by the five stages of grief, unfolds as an architectural narrative — from denial to acceptance — where each sequence of spaces mirrors an emotional passage.
The alternation between communal and private areas, along with spaces such as a chapel and a psychotherapy room, suggests an architecture that encourages introspection without isolation.
A thermal area bridges body and spirit, offering a physical counterpart to the project’s psychological and spiritual dimensions.
Planned for Hellerup, Denmark, the Sankt Luka Hospice and Lukashuset Palliative Care Center has been conceived by BIG as a village-like complex that merges landscape and architecture to promote dignity, community, and serenity at the end of life.
Rooted in the history of the Sankt Lukas Foundation and designed to assist 2,100 patients per year, the two new facilities are inspired by three guiding principles: safety and a sense of home, solitude and togetherness, and arrival and farewell. Constructed with natural materials such as fired clay bricks and timber, and surrounded by gardens and sensory spaces, the project extends interior life outdoors, creating a healing connection with nature.
>>> Discover BIG's Headquarters at the port of Copenhagen
Bagchi Karunashraya, meaning The Abode of Compassion, is a palliative care facility in Bangalore, India, dedicated to providing free, dignified, and compassionate care for terminal cancer patients. Embracing the idea that "where there is no cure, there is care", the project by Mindspace Architects, Indian firm led by P. N. Medappa, creates a serene and respectful environment for end-of-life care.
Spread over eight hectares, the complex includes wards for adults and children, staff accommodation, and a research wing. The architecture unfolds gently across the site’s natural topography, alternating between built and open spaces. Constructed using locally sourced laterite, the building will be adorned with murals by regional artists, forming a place where nature, care, and compassion coexist in harmony.
>>> Bagchi Karunashraya by Mindspace is a finalist for THE PLAN Award 2025 in the Health category
