The architect Ian Clarke, who has died suddenly at the age of 52, believed passionately that hospitals for the dying should be welcoming, reassuring places – and, as a leading light in the architectural firm JDDK, he spent his career designing uplifting spaces for palliative care.
The modern hospice movement began in 1967 when Dame Cicely Saunders, dismayed at the treatment dying people received in hospitals, opened St Christopher’s hospice in Sydenham, south-east London. Since then, more than 250 hospices have been established in the UK, which is now regarded internationally as a pioneer in the provision of palliative care. St Christopher’s was the prototype for a new kind of building – a mixture of way station, retreat and therapeutic community, even if only for a few weeks or days.
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