Darling Home for Kids is a medical facility for chronically and terminally ill children designed on a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Nestled on the Niagara Escarpment, a world heritage UNESCO site sits Ontario’s First Pediatric Hospice and Respite for chronically and medically complex children. A state-of-the-art facility located on a beautiful 77-acre woodlot.

The site itself presented a number of servicing challenges and required the Home to be designed to prioritize water and energy efficiency and to maximize passive solar energy in order to minimize the electrical and heating loads. Natural ventilation was incorporated throughout the home to allow the occupants to connect with the outdoors.

Built as a home away from home, the building embodies strong principles of sustainable design, biophilic design, and wellness architecture: water and energy conservation, daylighting strategies, passive solar energy, the incorporation of recycled materials, and, of utmost importance, creating a healthy indoor air environment.

Throughout the process, we engaged with the client and all stakeholders to develop a program that focused on healing and wellness in a hospice setting. Using the natural environment as a critical aspect of creating healthy spaces for all.

The final design for the Home includes a 15,000 square foot facility with 2 palliative hospice rooms, 10 respite beds, a 1500 square foot administration space, several therapy rooms, a sculpture garden, donor/memory wall, a playground, and wheelchair-accessible walking trails through the forested site.

Suppliers and contractors came together with tremendous generosity to donate 1.5M in gift-in-kind donations of material and labour.

Red Studio continues to be involved in aspects of facility improvements and upgrades. We are currently designing an expansion to the facility, its maintenance buildings and site.