C.F. Møller Architects: Hospice Djursland – putting people at the centre of architecture
C.F. Møller Architects has for a century been recognised for putting people and well-being in the centre of their architecture and the hospice in Djursland, Denmark, is a perfect example of that as well. The architect's finest task with the hospice has been to create surroundings which provide the best possible conditions to promote quality of life, respect, and a dignified death as life draws to an end.
Hospice Djursland – putting people at the centre of architecture
C.F. Møller Architects’s vision is to improve life for people and planet, and the key element in the hospice in Djursland is the connection between the building and the landscape – people and nature. A non-institutional atmosphere with daylight and green surroundings supporting recovery and a good work environment are focal points in healing architecture.
Hospice Djursland is first and foremost a building within a landscape. No matter where you go in the building - the reception area, the garden of the senses, the orangery, the atriums, the staff room, the lounge, the reflection room, or the patient rooms - the beautiful landscape is always present.
The architects have aimed to create a very humane building, meaning a building which is not an institution but rather a home which provides optimal daylight conditions combined with carefully considered choices of natural materials and surfaces to create adequate physical and mental space for those who will live there in their final time, as well as for their relatives and the staff.
The common materials used are copper, oak, and glass, which interact beautifully and naturally with the landscape and provide a sense of warmth in the rooms.
About C.F. Møller Architects
C.F. Møller Architects was founded in 1924 and has since the beginning, with Aarhus University as an early project, been a significant part of developing the Scandinavian welfare societies through architecture with a strong focus on well-being and by always putting people in the centre. Today they are an international practice recognised and awarded all over the world for setting new architectural standards, due to the strong focus on the functional, artistic, and social value of architecture. They have a natural and well-developed approach to architectural quality driven by creating optimal daylight conditions combined with carefully considered choices of natural materials and surfaces.