House for Julia – ADC

In Brno, Czech practice CTYRSTEN has completed the country’s first children’s hospice, the ‘House for Julia’, which provides palliative and respite care, rehabilitation, therapy, and comprehensive support for families.

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Czech practice CTYRSTEN has completed the country’s first children’s hospice, the ‘House for Julia’, designed to provide palliative and respite care, rehabilitation, therapy, and comprehensive support for families at a particularly difficult time.  The building sits within an existing natural amphitheatre in its parkland setting, oriented towards a protected inner courtyard with retained mature trees. A curved glazed corridor circles the atrium, allowing for movement on foot, with a stroller, or in a wheelchair and offering a constant connection with the the natural world with views of trees and sky, and reflected light from the pond. Children’s rooms and communal spaces are oriented towards this atrium, with views of greenery and a small pond.

Section shows how the hospice embeds itself across the sloping site.

The main floor is divided into four distinct sections with different purposes. To the right of the entrance, there is a large communal and dining space with access to terraces on both sides. This serves as a gathering space for visitors, social activities and communal meals. Behind the central kitchen block, there’s also a more private space for clients and families with lounge seating and a fireplace. To the left of the entrance, placed around a smaller courtyard, are the rooms for daily activities – physiotherapy, art therapy, music therapy, a pool for watsu therapy or snoezelen, and even a small cinema. The third section contain’s the client’s accommodation. There are ten rooms for children, each with a small private terrace placed around the large central courtyard, a nurses’ station, and a separate apartment for last farewells, with its own memorial atrium. This unusual apartment – complete with chillout room – allows parents and close family to say their last goodbyes privately, in their own time and without interruption.

From the entrance hall, the main staircase and elevator provide access the parents’ floor upstairs. Deliberately separate from the hospital’s operations, the parents’ floor is provides parents with much-needed privacy and space to relax including family rooms with private terraces and park views as well as a common room to encourage informal meetings with other families. By making good use of the surrounding terrain, the design has been able to provide direct access from the parents’ floor to the surrounding landscape, as well as 24-hour access to a roof level viewing walkway leading to a meditation spot at the tope of a hill and a generous roof terrace offering panoramic views of Brno. This space will also be used for social events and fundraisers, exercising, stargazing, or simply for relaxation.

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