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Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre, Cheltenham, by MJP Architects


enabling the shallow roof to sail over the continuous clerestory glazing, like Wright’s Usonian houses, another influence. Te overhanging soffit and the wide sill below reflect light into the space. Tere are occasional moments of direct overhead and sideways-cast daylight but, contradicting the brief, MacCormac wanted users to enjoy subtle, reflected daylight, rather than being ‘blasted by the sky’. Te horizontal windows, with heads


below eye level, provide views and additional reflected light that interacts with the warm, reflective gold and pink paint finishes, chosen in consultation with Jocasta Innes. At one point during my visit, the reflected daylight is dramatically transformed as a cloud passes overhead. Tis space’s horizontality is


countered by vertical elements such as windows and doorways. Its strong geometry is balanced by meticulous attention to detail that conveys human scale, helping users to engage with the building. ‘In a way the building is


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a big piece of furniture with a roof on top’, says MacCormac. French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s musings on corners, shelves, nests, drawers and the idea of the home as a refuge from the world inspired his pursuit of intimacy. ‘Te test of what we’re trying to do is whether a cat would be comfortable’, he adds. Tere’s enough detail here for a building 20 times its size. ‘You could never do this in an NHS project’, says MacCormac. He speculates that a value-engineered version would be stripped of everything that couldn’t be accounted for, with additional columns, no clerestory and flush doors instead of bespoke hinged oak panels.


MacCormac wanted users to enjoy subtle reflected daylight


Left Garden refuge, referred to as a Wendy house by MacCormac, viewed from


entrance courtyard. The magical qualities of Maggie’s are enhanced by external lighting Right Glazed link to garden refuge onto trellised entrance screen. These pods, with GRG internal linings, are used by individuals or small groups


Architecture students are often told not to cram too many ideas into a single building and to save some for other projects. Tis is a safe principle for success and can help designers to unravel knots by conceding that something has to go. But if one throws more ingredients into the mix, knowing that the process of integration will be more arduous and protracted, the stakes are higher. Many of the pinnacles of architectural expression, for example classical Greek temples, distil ingredients from disparate sources. Alan Berman of Berman Guedes


Stretton once said to a student, ‘Everyone should be able to have their cake and eat it.’ Tis is what MacCormac has achieved at Maggie’s. While his sources are intact and in counterpoint, rather than blended, his enjoyment of this inclusive process infuses the building with life, but is entirely consistent. Charles Jencks, who has advocated a rich architecture that he describes as ‘multivalent’, must be pleased with the result. ■


aj 02.12.10


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