Creating a Place for Dying: Gerontopia

The place chosen by palliative care patients for dying is typically examined according to functional aspects of practical equipment and housing modification. This qualitative research reports on how the environment negatively impairs or positively enables and empowers patients through individual meaning, control/preference, and sensory perception. Of application for designers, health care providers, and families, this narrative study of caregivers provides specific attributes and examples of place making for palliative care environments. The article concludes with a discussion on imagining gerontopia—an individual's ideal environment in which to grow old and die.