Thesis Project

As an aging population, the United Kingdom must always consider the future care of its citizens, who are facing a crisis of care due to what is largely considered the shortcoming of the National Health Service to provide suitable and universal home care to aging people. I argue that at its core, care begins within the home, an integrated and personal community of loved ones who look after one another. The historic urban fabric of Winchester creates these opportunities implicitly, yet today architects must make conscious decisions to create spaces that knit communities together and dignify their beloved members. The way in which we go about the redevelopment of Winchester is entirely a choice I am striving to lay the ethical and logical groundwork for the choices we are making going forward. In recent decades, the United Kingdom has moved away from the more traditional approach to care, involving communal accommodations such as church-run almshouses (the first of which in history still sits in the Itchen River Valley a mere two-mile walk from our city centre), or even private care homes, and has opted for a National Health Service at-home approach to care, catering to the majority of people. This approach requires plentiful care staff, which are not able to meet the current or likely increasing demand for care. The reality of elderly isolation in the UK was especially evident during the pandemic, when many people fell into worsening health scenarios, or even passed away, without the notice of their communities. In response, I am proposing a reimagining of the medieval almshouse building typology for Winchester, that is, a new care home, with 27 cottages, a commons, chapel, refectory, and gardens be incorporated into the new Central Winchester Regeneration Plan underway right now. Traditional architecture and urbanism have the capacity to allow people from all ages to live in dignity and have access to the necessities and pleasures of daily life. Through the model of the English almshouse, people who are in their last years of life can find the kind of care they need and satisfy their spiritual and social needs, helping make their years fulfilling and comfortable. An environment conducive to bringing family together, facilitating spiritual and physical care, and providing a setting for neighbors to enjoy face-to-face contact is the ideal environment in which to spend the end of life. The new Central Winchester Regeneration Plan offers the reinstatement of a much older form of care, based on community, proximity, and the ability to be seen and known by one’s neighbors. It embodies our shared vision of regenerating a lost quarter of our city, and aims to give it back to not just our older neighbors, but our entire community. Addressing loneliness and isolation can help to fill in the gaps of care left as our responsibility. The NHS can’t do it all, and we must open our arms to embrace our parents and grandparents as they age.