Buildner has revealed the winning designs from its fourth annual Hospice - Home for the Terminally Ill international architecture competition, showcasing innovative approaches to creating compassionate spaces for end-of-life care. The global competition challenged architects and designers to move beyond conventional clinical requirements and develop environments that prioritize emotional warmth, social connection, and a meaningful sense of place for both patients and their families.

The competition brief called for participants to design small hospice facilities capable of accommodating up to fifteen residents and five staff members. Each proposal was required to incorporate essential communal and therapeutic spaces including a kitchen, chapel, nurse's station, and a library-equipped gathering room. To ensure culturally responsive solutions, participants were asked to site their projects in their home countries, encouraging locally grounded design approaches that reflect regional contexts and traditions.

An distinguished international jury evaluated the submissions based on design clarity, emotional resonance, and architectural depth. The panel included notable figures such as Alan Dunlop, an award-winning architect and RIAS Fellow; Paul Monaghan, Stirling Prize winner and founding director of AHMM; Dr. Nirit Pilosof, a healthcare researcher and architect at Sheba Medical Centre and the University of Cambridge; Rubén García Rubio and Sonsoles Vela Navarro, co-founders of studioVRA and faculty members at Tulane University; David Reat, Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde specializing in healthcare environments; and Susanne Siepl-Coates, former Kansas State University professor recognized for her research on architecture and well-being.

The first prize was awarded to "Our Light" by Dutch architects Marinus A Wouters and Britt P H Segeren from the Netherlands. Their design draws inspiration from the ritual of releasing lanterns onto water, translating this collective act of remembrance into an architectural composition featuring modular timber volumes arranged on a floating urban site. The project emphasizes openness, adaptability, and emotional connection through buildings configured around shared courtyards and connected by gentle transitions. Rather than isolating patients from urban life, the design deliberately places the facility within the city center, promoting a more public and participatory approach to reflection and remembrance.

The second prize went to "Held Between Eucalyptus and Walls" by Australian designers Xiaojin Huang, Gerald Yi En Low, and Melissa Chong. This project creates a careful choreography between solid and void, seamlessly integrating architecture with the surrounding forested landscape. The radial plan features a central cluster of enclosed spaces that open onto gardens and courtyards, encouraging fluid movement between indoor and outdoor environments. The design emphasizes grounding, sensory experience, and material authenticity through the use of rammed earth, timber, and soft thresholds that create an atmosphere balancing protection with openness.

Canadian architect Pierre-Charles Gauthier received third prize for "Memory House," which centers on the concept of memory as both a spatial and emotional framework for end-of-life care. The circular plan organizes private and communal spaces around a central water garden, reflecting themes of orientation, ritual, and seasonal change. Individual rooms are grouped in small gabled units connected by shared interior corridors and open walkways that frame views to the forest and sky. The proposal is presented through a sequence of personal and familial recollections, emphasizing informality, intimacy, and domestic familiarity over institutional aesthetics.

The Buildner Student Winner was "Vital Park - A Hospice Among Trees" by Nikoleta Mitríková from the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia. The design utilizes a layered roof system and open-air courtyards to create dynamic interplays of light and shadow while facilitating natural ventilation. Materials such as timber, rammed earth, and local stone help regulate temperature and humidity, while water features, vegetation, and adjustable wooden louvers manage heat and moisture. The project successfully integrates daily routines with environmental rhythms, minimizing boundaries between interior and exterior spaces.

The Buildner Sustainability Prize was awarded to "Where Light is Seen, and Nature is Felt" by Lampis Farantos and Konstantinos Vlahavas from the University of West Attica, Greece. Their design is structured around two perpendicular axes - horizontal and public, vertical and private - that define both spatial and emotional orientation. The architecture serves as a setting for clarity, dignity, and reflection through restrained materials and careful spatial sequencing. Functional spaces like the kitchen, library, and gathering room are distributed along the public axis, while the chapel and clinical areas occupy the vertical axis, encouraging upward contemplation and quiet withdrawal.

Among the highlighted submissions, "The House of Timefulness" by Taylor Rhodes Lowe from the United States stood out for its innovative approach to adaptive reuse. The project transforms the fire-damaged ruins of Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts into a daytime hospice center that explores how architecture can heighten awareness of time's passage. Rather than pursuing timelessness, the proposal embraces "timefulness" - the concept that architecture can enrich experiences of temporality, seasonality, and mortality through thoughtful material selection and spatial design.

Another notable submission was "Tranquilife Center - Vita & Serenity" by Chinese designers Zhengyu Sun, Jialing Lin, Xinyue Zhang, and Chi Yuting. Located at the junction of the Huangpu and Chuanyang Rivers in Shanghai, this project addresses the psychological and emotional challenges surrounding end-of-life care in China, where death remains a cultural taboo. The design features five courtyards filled with vegetation symbolizing regeneration and life's continuation, along with a rooftop garden that connects directly to a public bridge, allowing controlled interaction between patients, families, and the broader community.

Buildner and the jury expressed gratitude to all participants for their thoughtful and inspiring proposals, recognizing their exceptional contributions to this important architectural typology. The organization continues to promote innovative design thinking through ongoing competitions including The Unbuilt Award 2025, celebrating visionary unbuilt projects across three scales; The Architect's Stair Edition 3, a conceptual exploration of architecture's most symbolic elements; and The Kinderspace Competition Edition 3, which invites creative ideas for early childhood learning environments.