A Place to Call Home: Reimaging Paediatric Hospice Environments Through Landscape and Narrative in Ōtepoti Dunedin

Abstract

This dissertation investigates how narrative architecture can engage with landscape and biophilic design to shape paediatric palliative care environments in Aotearoa New Zealand, with particular attention to Ōtepoti Dunedin and the lower South Island. It responds to the limited provision of purpose designed paediatric palliative care facilities and to the inadequacy of adult oriented care settings in addressing the emotional, cultural, developmental, and relational needs of tamariki and their whānau.

A design led, phenomenological methodology was adopted, integrating literature review, precedent analysis, industry engagement, site interpretation, and iterative design testing. Through sketches, diagrams, models, and early spatial propositions, the research explored how narrative sequence, threshold, refuge, outlook, whānau presence, and ecological continuity could be translated into architectural form. Rather than treating landscape as a backdrop and biophilic design as a decorative insertion, the project examined how contour, planting, microclimate, light, and sensory variation might structure emotional pacing, orientation, and care relationships.

The research found that narrative architecture became most effective when expressed through lived spatial conditions such as arrival, pause, gathering, retreat, remembrance, and farewell, rather than through symbolic form alone. It also found that culturally grounded and landscape responsive design can support agency, belonging, memory, and environmental connection for tamariki and whānau, while challenging institutional models of care. The resulting proposal advances a paediatric hospice framework where architecture acts as an active participant in care, integrating relational, cultural, and ecological dimensions within a regionally specific context.

This dissertation argues that paediatric palliative care environments in Aotearoa should be conceived not only as places of treatment, but as places of belonging, continuity, and care.