Endwell
GATHERING FOCUS
Within Endwell’s 2024 Los Angeles conference on serious illness, caregiving,
grief and end of life, PAUSE hosted a lunchtime affinity gathering for people of color.
We were invited to create a botanical labyrinth as both a grief-support space and a visible example of work being developed by people of color within the grief and death-care field.
The labyrinth needed to work inside an active conference environment while offering something fundamentally different: a place to step out of conversation, move at one’s own pace and turn inward.
Design Response.
A 15-foot classical three-circuit labyrinth was built with locally sourced botanicals, including gifted marigolds and freshly harvested native sage from local micro flower farm, Frogtown Flora.
The glass-enclosed room had abundant natural light, while closed doors allowed the fragrance of the botanicals to gather inside. Written orientation kept the experience largely self-guided, with hosts present throughout the day.
What Became Possible.
The labyrinth created another way to participate in an emotionally dense professional gathering.
Instead of requiring a scheduled workshop or facilitated exercise, it remained available throughout the day for people to enter on their own terms: to walk, pause, observe, photograph, ask questions or simply spend time in the space.
The installation also revealed the sensory potential of botanical materials. The freshly harvested sage changed the atmosphere of the room before participants even began walking.
One person entered and remarked:
“This does not smell like LA.”
That moment marked the first time I fully understood scent as part of the design.
What Was The Value Of This Activation.
The labyrinth added more than a quiet place to step away.
Its walkable form gave participants something to do with reflection: enter, move, pause, turn, continue or leave. The botanical materials made that experience physical and sensory. Fresh native sage filled the enclosed room with fragrance, abundant daylight animated the flowers and greens, and locally sourced materials connected the installation to Los Angeles rather than making it feel like something dropped in from elsewhere.
Because the experience was self-directed, it could remain available throughout the day without becoming another scheduled session or asking participants to process grief in a prescribed way.
For the gathering, that created a distinctive layer of support: a beautiful, place-responsive environment that participants could encounter with their bodies and senses, on their own terms.
That combination of movement, botanical material, place, sensory experience and participant agency is central to The Collabyrinth.