Les Bourgs Hospice
Designing a hospice requires a focus on the most important people in the building: the patients. While the facility must provide full clinical support, it is emphatically not a hospital. CCD’s design creates a homely, visually engaging environment, with quirky architectural details enhancing comfort and wellbeing.
- Category: commercial
Curved forms are a central feature, as these are known to improve therapeutic environments. The initial horseshoe-shaped concept surrounding a central garden with a thatched roof was revised to respect the footprint of the original hospice, a well-known landmark. The approved design retains curves in the reception, residential areas, and chapel, while different roof materials and colours help designate functional zones. A glass corridor links the reception to patient areas.
Individual landscaped gardens, designed with Landscape Architect Steve Welch, act as external ‘rooms’ for patients, each offering a private view and enhancing the sense of wellbeing. The hospice is arranged in two blocks: the reconstructed original building, retaining its familiar external appearance with white render, slate roof and granite, and a contrasting patients’ wing with a curved footprint and red pantile roof.
High levels of insulation and alternative energy systems, including heat-pumps for underfloor heating and hot water, improve the building's overall sustainability. Technical innovations such as patient-handling equipment and specialist bathing facilities support modern hospice care.
The completed hospice is a state-of-the-art facility, providing a comfortable, functional, and uplifting environment for patients and staff, and serving the Island community for decades to come.
