Negentropic Landscapes is an approach to building communities that support an “inside-out” hospice care model. It is designed in opposition to the current end-of-life architecture where aging and death are often treated as discrete from the rest of life. “Architecture,” in this project refers to structures of thinking, protocols, and logics – an idea space, designed to prompt a conversation not just about hospice but about how the design of communities can help acclimate us to the reality of death.
Negentropic Landscapes is an approach to building communities that support an “inside-out” hospice care model. It is designed in opposition to the current end-of-life architecture where aging and death are often treated as discrete from the rest of life. “Architecture,” in this project refers to structures of thinking, protocols, and logics – an idea space, designed to prompt a conversation not just about hospice but about how the design of communities can help acclimate us to the reality of death.
This project interrogates the larger orders of our relationship to death, space, institutions, territories, technologies, and politics. In today’s society, death is the ultimate or maximum disorder, and this is reflected in the architecture of the health system. Hospice care, in particular, is located within a fragmented end-of-life care landscape with for-profit services scattered across standalone settings.
This project interrogates the larger orders of our relationship to death, space, institutions, territories, technologies, and politics. In today’s society, death is the ultimate or maximum disorder, and this is reflected in the architecture of the health system. Hospice care, in particular, is located within a fragmented end-of-life care landscape with for-profit services scattered across standalone settings.
On whose bodies is western medicine built?
On whose bodies is western medicine built?
Hospice care is an approach to care that is constructed to support the multidimensional needs of patients and families during illness and following death as well as improve the quality of life of patients near the end of their lives. However, many older adults living with a chronic life-threatening illness either do not receive any palliative care or receive hospice care only in the last phase of their illness. Given the rising population of older adults in the U.S and the necropolitics of COVID–19, it is imperative to build expansive care systems that give older adults control and autonomy over their own death and extend support to family caregivers.
In this diagram, I started mapping challenges, systems, and ideologies that maintain end-of-life care in the four global regions. In the Global North, caring and dying are often viewed as individualistic problems, whereas in the Global South and eastern traditions, caring and death are viewed as a collective experience.
Hospice care is an approach to care that is constructed to support the multidimensional needs of patients and families during illness and following death as well as improve the quality of life of patients near the end of their lives. However, many older adults living with a chronic life-threatening illness either do not receive any palliative care or receive hospice care only in the last phase of their illness. Given the rising population of older adults in the U.S and the necropolitics of COVID–19, it is imperative to build expansive care systems that give older adults control and autonomy over their own death and extend support to family caregivers.
In this diagram, I started mapping challenges, systems, and ideologies that maintain end-of-life care in the four global regions. In the Global North, caring and dying are often viewed as individualistic problems, whereas in the Global South and eastern traditions, caring and death are viewed as a collective experience.
“An industrialization of life made for death, where ‘senseless’ death has become ‘useful’ death and capitalism has replaced national aggression as the primary vindication of death; Where even statistics only occur on abolitionist pages because most humans do not see death of the nonhuman as death; Where female death, racially motivated death, disabled death, LGBTQ death still do not seem to register as their own nations; Where the anthropocentric ego is a single point of perception of the world for an individual to get through and thrive and the Earth as a series of relations will always come second to individual survival, be it as excessive or as daily struggle.”
Maccormack, Anthropocene book of the dead
“An industrialization of life made for death, where ‘senseless’ death has become ‘useful’ death and capitalism has replaced national aggression as the primary vindication of death; Where even statistics only occur on abolitionist pages because most humans do not see death of the nonhuman as death; Where female death, racially motivated death, disabled death, LGBTQ death still do not seem to register as their own nations; Where the anthropocentric ego is a single point of perception of the world for an individual to get through and thrive and the Earth as a series of relations will always come second to individual survival, be it as excessive or as daily struggle.”
Maccormack, Anthropocene book of the dead
Co-creation workshops
Co-creation workshops
To explore what a new model for hospice might look like, I started conducting workshops with geriatricians, hospice volunteers, palliative and hospice specialists, and subject matter experts from senior living facilities. The first activity was built around the individual reflection of their community. Collaborators were asked to draw a map of their neighborhood. This icebreaker allows collaborators to introduce themselves and learn about their attachments to places in their neighborhood.
What are the boundaries of your neighborhood – where does it begin and end? What markers tell you when you are entering or leaving this neighborhood?
Draw this area to the best of your memory. Add in streets, particular houses, stores, businesses, parks, restaurants, landscapes, and other physical features.
Include areas that offer resources for death and dying or are of interest to you (positive and negative)
On or near your map, list four adjectives that describe this area.
What is one word you would use to describe your neighborhood?
To explore what a new model for hospice might look like, I started conducting workshops with geriatricians, hospice volunteers, palliative and hospice specialists, and subject matter experts from senior living facilities. The first activity was built around the individual reflection of their community. Collaborators were asked to draw a map of their neighborhood. This icebreaker allows collaborators to introduce themselves and learn about their attachments to places in their neighborhood.
What are the boundaries of your neighborhood – where does it begin and end? What markers tell you when you are entering or leaving this neighborhood?
Draw this area to the best of your memory. Add in streets, particular houses, stores, businesses, parks, restaurants, landscapes, and other physical features.
Include areas that offer resources for death and dying or are of interest to you (positive and negative)
On or near your map, list four adjectives that describe this area.
What is one word you would use to describe your neighborhood?
“The African American community is particularly skeptical of hospice care services because to them hospice might mean giving up on life and an attack by the healthcare system to deny them treatment. This is a community that time and again has been denied access to healthcare. When it comes to raising awareness around hospice in this community it is both more challenging and at the same time of the greatest importance to change their perception of what hospice is or can be.”
During an in-depth interview with one of the collaborators, Dr. Morris, a palliative and hospice care specialist.
“The African American community is particularly skeptical of hospice care services because to them hospice might mean giving up on life and an attack by the healthcare system to deny them treatment. This is a community that time and again has been denied access to healthcare. When it comes to raising awareness around hospice in this community it is both more challenging and at the same time of the greatest importance to change their perception of what hospice is or can be.”
During an in-depth interview with one of the collaborators, Dr. Morris, a palliative and hospice care specialist.
Why is the medical industry hyper-focused on seeking cures rather than improving the palliative/hospice care systems?
Why is the medical industry hyper-focused on seeking cures rather than improving the palliative/hospice care systems?
I decided to co-create a site-specific model – this new model is focused on the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles, home to predominantly African American communities.
Collaborators were then asked to organize their ideal community on a map of the site using 2D shapes that represented a mix of intergenerational infrastructures and volunteer-led hospice services. Once they completed their community models, they were asked to present their maps and explain their site arrangement. After they presented their models, they were asked to describe an activity in the future using the model.
I decided to co-create a site-specific model – this new model is focused on the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles, home to predominantly African American communities.
Collaborators were then asked to organize their ideal community on a map of the site using 2D shapes that represented a mix of intergenerational infrastructures and volunteer-led hospice services. Once they completed their community models, they were asked to present their maps and explain their site arrangement. After they presented their models, they were asked to describe an activity in the future using the model.
Crematory Care ensures that the departed’s body is handled with solemnity during the cremation. Families can observe the process and even participate if they like. The cremation begins with death doulas and the family washing the body together in a bath surrounded by open space, high ceilings and deceased's favorite music playing in the background. Bodies are then escorted into the crematory. Water from the bath is directed to the plants. Grief Care centers surround the crematory. Here families can wait and reflect on their feelings while their loved one’s get cremated. After the cremation the space allows families to perform their own culturally relevant rituals and ceremonies to say goodbye to their loved one.
Crematory Care ensures that the departed’s body is handled with solemnity during the cremation. Families can observe the process and even participate if they like. The cremation begins with death doulas and the family washing the body together in a bath surrounded by open space, high ceilings and deceased's favorite music playing in the background. Bodies are then escorted into the crematory. Water from the bath is directed to the plants. Grief Care centers surround the crematory. Here families can wait and reflect on their feelings while their loved one’s get cremated. After the cremation the space allows families to perform their own culturally relevant rituals and ceremonies to say goodbye to their loved one.
Care homes are designed in opposition to the traditional nursing homes. Here, artists, students and seniors live together. Artists work in these spaces and give lessons or performances to contribute socially. Students aid older adults by taking on household chores and errands.
Care homes are designed in opposition to the traditional nursing homes. Here, artists, students and seniors live together. Artists work in these spaces and give lessons or performances to contribute socially. Students aid older adults by taking on household chores and errands.
Land around the care homes, in proximity to the gardens, is utilized for burial pods, which get repurposed as compost. High school students use the clay from the river to make cremation urns. This contribution builds a sense of empathy and cultivates positive associations to death.
Land around the care homes, in proximity to the gardens, is utilized for burial pods, which get repurposed as compost. High school students use the clay from the river to make cremation urns. This contribution builds a sense of empathy and cultivates positive associations to death.
The schematic of the prayer house moves from social to solitary. The social space allows for communal healing while the solitary space provides support for letting go. This space aids the residents in anticipating and acclimating to death as a part of life.
The schematic of the prayer house moves from social to solitary. The social space allows for communal healing while the solitary space provides support for letting go. This space aids the residents in anticipating and acclimating to death as a part of life.
Death Parlors are designed to provide advanced death planning resources, where residents can virtually experience what happens on the day they die. - The design of the space itself is welcoming and encourages residents to practice preparatory care.
Death Parlors are designed to provide advanced death planning resources, where residents can virtually experience what happens on the day they die. - The design of the space itself is welcoming and encourages residents to practice preparatory care.
Older adults tend the gardens and help children maintain the nurseries. The gardens provide fruits and vegetables that are shared among residents and ancestors.
Older adults tend the gardens and help children maintain the nurseries. The gardens provide fruits and vegetables that are shared among residents and ancestors.
My aim for this thesis is to inspire designers to reorient themselves when designing for dying and death and to show that hospice doesn’t have to be an idea we hear towards the end of our life, it, in fact, can become a part of our life and plays a relevant role through all life stages. In order to redirect and redefine hospice care and do it justice in its ontological, ethical, and political terms we need long-term design engagement processes to reconceptualize death, sickness, and caring.
My aim for this thesis is to inspire designers to reorient themselves when designing for dying and death and to show that hospice doesn’t have to be an idea we hear towards the end of our life, it, in fact, can become a part of our life and plays a relevant role through all life stages. In order to redirect and redefine hospice care and do it justice in its ontological, ethical, and political terms we need long-term design engagement processes to reconceptualize death, sickness, and caring.