Maggie's Centres Case Study

ABOUT MAGGIES
The charity ‘Maggie’s Centres’ has created a series of buildings dedicated to providing free emotional, practical and social support for cancer patients. Some of the world’s foremost architects are striving to build these palliative structures with the task of creating uplifting environments for cancer care, in honour of co-founder Maggie Keswick Jencks, who died from breast cancer in 1995. Maggie`s Centre is not a treatment centre but a place where individuals can meet, connect and receive help and guidance. Typical cancer care environments can be intimidating and create anxiety for patients, which is one of the reasons why the centres aim to be home-like, comfortable and welcoming. Making good architecture is part of Maggie’s
‘Architecture can't cure cancer, but good design has the power to help heal.’ (Hill, 2013) When discussing the role of architects today in designing meaningful buildings, Laura Lee, chief executive of the Maggie Centres, explains how the design of a Maggie Centre reaches far beyond the initial design brief. (Fulcher, 2012) The driving force behind designing palliative environments for people with cancer is the role of the architect in investigating social problems. ‘You are the investigators of the social problem.’ (Fulcher, 2012) ‘Your role is helping people deal with the ramifications of cancer. Beyond just putting up buildings, each of our architects investigates and proposes their solutions for dealing with our social problems.’ Describing the decision to appoint OMA’s Rem Koolhaas to design the Doolan Prize-winning Maggie’s centre at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow, Lee said people warned her the influential designer was ‘quite cold, masculine and brutal.’ Koolhaas was advised to design a brief containing no corridors and he came up with a building which was one long corridor. ‘By taking this risk he has given us a really tender building which is surprising in its quality. It is strong, something people you can lean on and will support you. It is a place you can come in and be yourself.’ (Fulcher,
The skylights cast beautiful light patterns, as the light transitions across the ceiling. Penny Lewis discovered that the dome like roof acts as a whispering gallery. However due to its complex geometry, the conversation travels only in one direction. (Lewis, 2013) Greenwood argues that the contrast between the soft form and hard material of the shell is part of the building's appeal while Lewis proposes the relationship between the shell and the box has not been handled with the same care and attention, making the building lightly uncomfortable. ‘The two contradictory forms seem to clash, rather than complement each other.’ With carved oak seating and rocking chairs around a fireplace, Snohetta strove to achieve a home away from home. Despite these features, the atmosphere appears rather gloomy, according to James, ‘with unseen voices ricocheting wearily off the curving white walls.’ (James, 2014) Confident that the Aberdeen Centre needs only time to settle into its surroundings, Jencks hopes that the Aberdeen Centre ‘will nestle into the grounds and the landscape that the architects have designed, and it will seem less like a brash piece of sculptural late modernism.’ (Hill,