DMA

After an invited design competition, DMA were appointed to create new facilities for Claire House, a charity that provides end-of-life care and support for children and their families. The project transforms a Gothic Revival monastery into a state-of-the-art children’s hospice that will serve as a beacon of compassionate care, innovation, and sustainability in West Derby, Liverpool. Previously occupied by the Carmelite sisters, a closed order of Nuns, the existing Edwardian building has patterned brick interiors, pointed arches, dark timber and ribbed vaults, and is set within a large and beautiful walled garden.

Working closely with the client and through a series of workshops with the clinical teams and the wider staff, we developed a detailed brief to be carried out in phases. The design takes the existing building as its starting point, repurposing and reimagining it to create a place that lifts the spirits and makes everyone feel safe and supported. It is shaped by the relationship between therapy spaces and various gardens and hidden courtyard spaces that provide intimate and playful spaces for contemplation. This all needed to be balanced with a very specific set of specialist accommodation that includes an end-of-life care unit, respite care and a “butterfly suite” where children are laid to rest.

An early stage of the project created an atrium in a previously inaccessible courtyard within the existing building, giving Claire House’s teenagers their own light, bright space in which to hang out and socialise. The next stage of the project is a new clinical pavilion providing dedicated, bespoke accommodation. The pavilion is carefully integrated into the landscape and designed around a curved courtyard to preserve existing mature trees and form a gentle, organic glass enclosure with an undulating roof to accommodate the trees and allow light in. A new extension acts as main entrance and connects the old and new buildings.