“You matter because you are you, and you matter to the last moment of your life.

We will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die”

Dame Cicely Saunders

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Working closely with St. Christopher’s executive and education teams, we have realised their vision for a flexible learning facility, one that welcomes wider caring communities alongside health professionals. The subdivisible lecture hall, practical skills laboratory, library, meeting rooms and workspaces freely associate around the central Foyer where all-important conversations, hospitality, and social events take place. Space, light and shade play through the heart of the building, connecting it visually and physically with views and level thresholds to old and new gardens that surround the building and link it to the original hospice.

Pauses on the way are as vital as destinations, moments of intimacy - places to talk, refresh and reflect. Window seats are poised between inside and outside. An oak table offers guests welcome and promises conviviality. The material palette of natural wood, textured brick and sandy carpet projects an atmosphere of domestic calm. Warm pink crumbly brickwork continues inside and out, punctuated by colonnades, apertures and recesses. By contrast, a floating pavilion clad in polycarbonate houses the rooftop skills laboratory. It shimmers silvery white, taking on hues of the evening sky.

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“Space to shelter in time”

Ken Worpole