Designing Dying-in-Place

Translating the palliative care concept of ‘dying-in-place’ to architectural practice and design strategies for housing, with the goal of helping more people experience a dignified death in their own home.

This research aims to understand the qualities of place where older people (defined as those over 60 years old by the United Nations) receive end-of-life care.

In the past, most people in Europe died at home, but this changed in the mid-19th century, and now less than a third of deaths in England and Wales happen at home. Most people die in hospitals or care institutions, which are often not ideal places for death.

Our research goal is to understand how design can be used to create environments for dying-in-place, a concept from palliative care that has yet to be fully explored in architecture. The project has three objectives: (i) to review existing research on dying-in-place, as well as cultural attitudes toward death,(ii) to gather experiences of dying at home from different cultures in Wales, through feedback from carers, and (iii) to provide insights for architects on how to design homes that better support people who want to die at home.

A key benefit of the project will be the development of understanding drawn from real-life experiences of dying at home in Wales, particularly from diverse communities that are underrepresented in previous research. The research will respond to the questions: (i) What do people want in the place where they die? (ii) What are the environmental barriers to dying at home? (iii) How can architects help design better homes for dying-in-place?