What are Maggie’s centres?
‘During a consultation, people often hear little of what the doctor says after the word “cancer”’, says Laura Lee, chief executive of Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. These centres exist to assist with the anxiety that goes with the disease, complementing the sometimes abrasive and alienating environment of NHS oncology wards. They are named after Maggie Keswick Jencks who, as a cancer patient, identified a need for small care centres to help people suffering from the disease to orientate themselves, address practicalities, reflect and understand their condition. After her death in 1995, her husband, the architecture writer Charles Jencks, and others developed the programme to build centres funded by donations, serving NHS hospitals. Some were designed by well-known architect-friends of the Jencks and MJP Architects’ Maggie’s in Cheltenham, which opened in September, is the seventh centre to be completed.
The other completed centres are: Edinburgh, by Richard Murphy (1996) (AJ 20.09.01); Glasgow, by Page\Park (2002) (AJ 25.09.03); Dundee. by Frank Gehry (2003) (AJ 25.09.03); Kircaldy, by Zaha Hadid (2005); Inverness, by Page\Park (2006); London, by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (2008) (AJ 15.10.09); Glasgow, OMA (under construction)
Main picture View from car park Bottom row, from left Corner window overlooking river, showing bespoke board and batten European oak cladding; view from riverside walk; kitchen with chalk
white quartz worktop; Yoga room used for communal activities. One of the principles of the design of the
communal spaces is that people feel more secure if they have their back against the wall
aj 02.12.10
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