01 / The Health Sanctuary

Academic project / Thamesmead, London

The Health Sanctuary

Care, housing and landscape in Thamesmead.

Year: 2022
Place: Thamesmead, London
Institution: Architectural Association School of Architecture
Programme: Housing and Urbanism
Tutor: Elena Pascalo

The project

Care should be close enough to belong to everyday life.

The Health Sanctuary begins with a critique of healthcare as a distant, mechanical system focused on treating disease and distributing medicines. That model neglects human complexity, belonging and the quality of everyday life, particularly for people with chronic or lifelong illness.

A sanctuary is proposed instead: a place of refuge for healing body, mind and soul, where healthcare and living form one connected system. Three concepts drive it. Filter rethinks the programme and environment. Interlock connects people, buildings and habitats. Threshold turns the spaces between them into places for shared activity.

The Health Sanctuary

01 / The argument

Care within everyday life

A place to live, receive care and remain connected.

In Thamesmead the proposal brings clinical care into a domestic and ecological setting. Medical consultation, monitoring and technology remain essential to the model.

Axonometric drawing of low timber and glass buildings, greenhouses and gardens beside a grey residential neighbourhood. — 02Axonometric view of the sanctuary at the neighbourhood edge, with housing and healthcare connected by greenhouses, gardens and paths.

The Health Sanctuary

02 / Filter: homes and care

Homes supported by care

Filter begins with a change in the organisation of care. The proposal replaces an anonymous arrangement of beds with homes supported by nearby consultation, diagnosis and treatment rooms. Studios house single adults and older residents, one-bedroom apartments serve couples, and two- and three-bedroom homes serve families.

Shared spaces also serve the surrounding neighbourhood: study and work rooms, group therapy, recreation and gardens. Waiting and circulation become part of this social setting. Qualified staff keep clinical responsibility; companionship and community activities would be voluntary.

Six small isometric diagrams: winter gardens, planted landscape buffer, post and beam structure, community greenhouse, flexible room grid and shared greenhouse threshold. — 03Design studies: winter gardens, a planted buffer and a post-and-beam structure; community greenhouses, a flexible room grid and shared thresholds.

The Health Sanctuary

03 / Interlock: landscape

A landscape that connects

The sanctuary’s care model extends to people and non-human habitats. The study treats the climate crisis as a concern for both human and non-human health. Drawing on Richard T. T. Forman’s landscape principles, a comb of routes crosses the residential edge into the site, and a varied grid accommodates buildings and planted spaces.

A planted belt and water basins beside the sewage treatment works address air and water quality. Proposed as ecological filters, they also form a community park for recreation and therapeutic activity.

Watercolour-toned plan of a housing estate beside a river, with ponds, a planted belt and paths. — 04Landscape proposal at the neighbourhood edge, with a planted belt, paths and water basins beside existing infrastructure.

The Health Sanctuary

04 / Site design sequence

From routes to plots

The site studies begin with movement along the residential edge. A comb of routes crosses this boundary, and a grid is laid over those routes, with plots of different sizes giving the proposal a framework for placing buildings and gardens. The sequence translates the idea of interlock into a site organisation of occupied and open spaces.

Living: Studios, one-bedroom homes and two- and three-bedroom family homes.
Clinical care: Consultation, diagnosis and treatment rooms close to home.
Shared life: Gardens, group therapy, recreation, study and work spaces.

Six small site plans showing the design growing from edge, to routes, to plots, to buildings, to gardens, to the finished sanctuary. — 05Site design sequence: edge, routes, plots, buildings, gardens, the sanctuary.

Rendered site plan with green-roofed buildings among trees, paths and ponds at the edge of a neighbourhood. — 06Site plan bringing homes, clinical spaces, greenhouses and gardens into a shared landscape.

The Health Sanctuary

05 / Interlock: rooms and courtyards

Rooms on a flexible grid

A repeated structural grid brings housing, clinical rooms and shared spaces into one framework, exploring how rooms could be combined or reconfigured as residents’ needs change.

Courtyards break into the deep plan and connect rooms to planted outdoor spaces. Protected entrances, quiet rooms and direct step-free routes would let residents choose privacy without losing access to care.

Rendered ground-floor plan with furnished rooms around planted courtyards and a blue water channel. — 07Ground-floor study showing enclosed rooms, planted courtyards and connecting circulation.

The Health Sanctuary

06 / Threshold: shared space

Greenhouses as shared rooms

Connection and privacy carry equal weight.

Threshold turns the spaces between home and treatment into occupied places. The primary greenhouse rises to a maximum of 15 metres and serves as a vertical circulation core, with rooms and landings opening towards its planted interior. Smaller winter gardens form further transitions between inside and outside. The aim is to replace passive corridors and waiting areas with spaces where relationships can develop.

Colour section through a five-storey building with glazed pitched roofs, a planted central greenhouse and small rooms with people inside. — 08Section through the sanctuary: clinical and domestic rooms, landings and shared activities connected by planted greenhouse volumes.

The Health Sanctuary

07 / Seasonal operation

A temperate space between

The sanctuary combines natural and technological approaches to healing, and formal and informal care. Greenhouses are studied as temperate buffers, with the ground’s thermal mass and stored waste heat contributing to a controlled interior. Seasonal operation would combine summer shading and controlled ventilation with winter solar gain and heat retention. These environmental strategies remain proposals requiring testing.

Elevation of a row of timber homes and glazed greenhouses with small figures in the windows. — 09Frontage study: domestic and clinical rooms beside planted greenhouse volumes, with individual and shared activities along the edge.

The Health Sanctuary

08 / Inside the sanctuary

A shared greenhouse, and life between buildings

Planting, conversation and everyday activity occupy the space between home and treatment. Shared routes, seating and places to meet extend everyday life into the gardens.

Three-storey timber greenhouse hung with bunting and vines; residents sit in armchairs, share tea and tend plants. — 10A shared greenhousePlanting, domestic activity and spaces for collective care.

Timber and glass buildings above stepped seating where older people, carers and families read, play cards and garden. — 11Life between buildingsResidents sharing routes, seating and everyday activities.

The Health Sanctuary

09 / Community and delivery

From proposal to shared place

The sanctuary’s contribution lies in bringing intergenerational housing, continuing professional care and shared greenhouse spaces into one neighbourhood setting. Developing the proposal would involve residents and care providers in shaping access, affordability and shared-space use. The ambition is to make everyday living part of care, while treating the health of the surrounding environment as a shared responsibility.

Define the local briefInvite residents, carers and potential providers to identify unmet needs, access barriers and acceptable costs.
Test a small programmePilot shared-room or garden activities. Review participation, privacy and access with the people taking part.
Develop the clusterCoordinate plans with the care service, costs, staffing and maintenance. Test environmental performance.