Julie Trueman

This article details the development of a live design research project working with people who are bereaved, people who are living with dementia and people who are approaching end of life. The project aims to support people to continue bonds with others in anticipation of and following death. It centres on the idea of ongoingness and using art, design and digital technologies in gentle, personally meaningful ways.

We describe the design and use of ReFind, a handheld artefact made for people who are bereaved and are ready to re-explore their relationship to the deceased person. ReFind was made within a project seeking to develop new ways to curate and create digital media to support ongoingness - an active, dynamic component of continuing bonds. We draw on bereavement theory and care championing practices that enable a continued sense of connection between someone bereaved and a person who has died. We present the design development of ReFind and the lived experience of the piece by the first author. We discuss our wider methodology which includes autobiographical design and reflections on if and how the piece supported ongoing connections, the challenges faced, and insights gained.

We are a firm of architects with over 30 years of ongoing, developmental and iterative experience in the field of hospice design; throughout this time we have worked on over 40 hospice projects. Our work in this area began in 1980 when our founder won a competition to design a hospice in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, marking the start of an exciting architectural journey working with many hospices across the UK and Ireland that continues to this day. Each of our hospice buildings provides a rich case study for post-occupancy evaluations, and to that end we are currently undertaking research aimed at tracking the development of hospice design since 1980 and obtaining guidance on how hospice requirements are likely to change over the coming years. To do this we are visiting twelve of our most significant hospice buildings and speaking to key stakeholders to gain a thorough understanding of: What worked and what didn’t over this range of projects? What themes emerge as key factors in determining the success of a hospice building? How has the ethos of our practice influenced the outcomes of these projects? How could future hospice design respond to the changing political, demographic, social and regulatory context of healthcare design in the UK? We are working with a leading North Eastern university to evaluate our findings; our underlying aim is to use a rich and multivalent approach to post-occupancy evaluation to uncover emerging themes that contribute towards the positive improvement of future hospice designs and their consequent benefit to patients, staff and the wider community. When the research is complete it is hoped that the finished project will serve as a useful database for hospices that are undertaking capital design projects, as well as medical and architectural students with an interest in palliative care.