Designing Care Spaces

On November 27, the Enric Miralles Foundation presented the discussion “Designing Spaces of Care,” part of the program “Architecture for Human, Urban, and Planetary Well-being,” an event held as part of Barcelona World Capital of Architecture 2026. The inaugural dialogue for the exhibition “Healing Architectures: Designing Spaces of Care” invited participants to reflect on the role of architecture in creating spaces capable of caring for, supporting, and contributing to people’s physical and emotional well-being.

For decades, health-related spaces have been designed primarily based on functional, technical, and care-related criteria. However, a broader understanding of well-being requires us to reevaluate this perspective and recognize the built environment’s ability to influence our physical, emotional, and social experiences.

The question is no longer just how to design spaces for health, but how to design spaces that provide care.

From this perspective emerges the concept of the “Architecture of Care,” an approach that views care as a fundamental aspect of contemporary architectural design. Architecture ceases to be merely the physical setting in which care takes place and instead becomes an active agent of well-being, capable of fostering comfort, intimacy, a sense of belonging, interaction, and connection with the surrounding environment.

Through the dialogue between architecture and health, this project explores new ways of conceiving spaces dedicated to care, highlighting aspects such as the human scale, natural light, materials, the relationship with nature, and the creation of domestic and welcoming environments capable of supporting people in situations of particular vulnerability.

This proposal thus calls for a shift: from the healthcare setting to the care setting; from architecture understood as infrastructure to architecture as an experience; and from well-being understood exclusively from a clinical perspective to a holistic conception that also incorporates emotional, social, and environmental dimensions.

The exhibition “Healing Architectures: Designing Spaces of Care” presents the results of the Yale School of Architecture’s Spring 2025 Advanced Studio, led by Benedetta Tagliabue, Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor of Architectural Design, and Can Vu Bui, a professor and critic at Yale. The studio explored the design of a new Kálida Center in Barcelona, adjacent to Vall d’Hebron Hospital, investigating how architecture can provide physical and emotional support to people affected by cancer and their families.

Along with the proposals developed by the students, the exhibition traces the history and philosophy of the Maggie’s Centers, focusing particularly on the Kálida Sant Pau Center, designed by EMBT Architects, and on the work carried out by the Kálida Foundation, while also looking toward the future and exploring the possibilities of incorporating new care architectures into the Vall d’Hebron Hospital complex.

The projects featured here thus invite us to understand architecture as part of an ecology of care, where space, nature, community, and experience come together to create environments capable of offering refuge, dignity, support, and a sense of belonging. Beyond meeting functional needs, architecture gains the capacity to actively contribute to the way we navigate situations of illness, recovery, and vulnerability.

Speakers:

– BENEDETTA TAGLIABUE
Co-founder and Principal Architect at EMBT, Founder and President of the Enric Miralles Foundation, and Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture

– CAN VU BUI
Professor and critic at the Yale School of Architecture

– JOAN REVENTÓS
Director of the Kálida Sant Pau Center

– CAROLINA GARDIA
Architect and Ph.D. in Theory and History of Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia

The exhibition is part of the “Architecture for Human, Urban, and Planetary Well-Being” program, organized by the Enric Miralles Foundation. It is a platform for research and debate that explores the transformative role of architecture in addressing major contemporary challenges.

Barcelona 2026 World Capital of Architecture is supported by the Barcelona City Council, the Government of Catalonia, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.