The design studio Hôtel de Dieu is an integrative design studio in dialogue with the renowned philosopher Lisz Hirn in search of new typologies for the last phase of “our” lives.

The premise: A good life ends with death, everything before that, including dying, is part of it.

When is the good life actually over? For most people, a good life can only be thought of apart from imminent death. The diagnosis often hits them like a blow - and not just them: their families too.
How can we imagine a space in which not only research is carried out into the end of human life (palliative medicine), but in which people are also advised and cared for in the final stages and information and education work (palliative care, philosophical counseling, legal services) is carried out? A sophisticated place where not only medical functionality but also the aesthetic and social needs of people are taken into account. Where the decay of all things flows into the essence of the space and thus meets both the essential need for the organic as a living and tangible nature and the ecological connection (care for future generations). Imagine school classes visiting this educational institution to learn how to live well in the face of death and until the end. After all, dying affects old and young alike. Imagine a place that tries to take the sting out of death: in the midst of society, not hidden, not exhibited, without fear of being left alone or deported. Imagine a space whose simple or monumental aesthetics overwhelm you and make you look at the diagnosis from a new, more serene perspective: living well necessarily includes dying well.

What does this mean for architecture? What are possible new forms of spatial organization for these emancipatory models of dealing with the elementary questions of our existence?