New plans for Maggie’s Centres

Plans for next seven cancer caring centres announced

Following a remarkable fundraising campaign, Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres – the UK leader in the field of psychosocial support for people with cancer – has unveiled plans for the next seven centres, all due for completion within the next two years.

Each available to an average population of 2 million people these future centres, which will include projects by Pritzker Prize winning architect Rem Koolhaas, and other notable architects such as Sir Richard MacCormac and Chris Wilkinson of Wilkinson Eyre, mark the crucial next stage of a network of centres throughout the UK and showcase the ongoing collaboration between Maggie’s and some of the world’s leading architects.

The future centres are:

• Maggie’s Cotswolds – Sir Richard MacCormac CBE, MacCormac Jamieson and Pritchard Architects – Autumn 2010
  Landscape designs by Dr Christine Facer
• Maggie’s Gartnavel, Glasgow – Rem Koolhaas, Office of Metropolitan Architecture – Summer 2011
  Landscape designs by Lily Jencks
• Maggie’s South West Wales – the late Dr Kisho Kurokawa, ArBITAT architects – Autumn 2011
• Maggie’s Oxford – Chris Wilkinson, Wilkinson Eyre Architects – Autumn 2011
  Landscape designs by Flora Gathorne-Hardy
• Maggie’s Nottingham – Piers Gough CBE of CZWG Architects – Winter 2011
• Maggie’s North East – Ted Cullinan CBE, Ted Cullinan Architects – Spring 2012
• Maggie’s Lanarkshire – Neil Gillespie, of Reiach and Hall – Spring 2012

Model for Maggie's Nottingham. Source: www.maggiescentres.org

Rem Koolhaas, architect of the Glasgow Centre said, “We accepted the commission with eagerness. I don’t think it should be a building that challenges people to live better; rather it should have a direct effect on the people who use it. The space we have is great because it is linked to the existing hospital, but far enough away from it for us to create another world. It has both privacy and a central position; both sheltered and slightly exposed. The Centre will have a holistic feel and hopefully will provide respite and comfort for people.”

An estimated 1 in 3 people will develop cancer in their lifetime and medical advances mean that more people are living longer with a cancer diagnosis. There is increasing recognition of the benefits achieved through the integration of emotional and psychological support, and information provision, with the clinical and palliative care given to cancer patients.

Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres aim to equip people with the tools to build a life beyond cancer through access to this information and support. In 2009 Maggie’s opened their doors to over 79,000 people, 67% of whom were cancer sufferers and 33% family and friends of someone with cancer.

Piers Gough with the model of his Maggie's Nottingham design. Source: www.maggiescentres.org

By 2015 Maggie’s aim to be based on almost half of Britain’s NHS cancer centre sites with twenty-three centres open or in development across the UK, and each endeavouring to reach on average 40% of the local cancer population. By expanding its network of centres Maggie’s wants to ensure that wherever people are diagnosed with cancer they are able to access the support needed to help them cope with the emotional and psychological consequences of the disease.

The recently published book The Architecture of Hope by Charles Jencks and Edwin Heathcote presents all past and future Maggie’s Centres. Published by Frances Lincoln.

About Maggie’s
Founded in 1996 Maggie’s has been pioneering a new concept of cancer support in the UK providing help, information and guidance to all people personally affected by cancer, as well as friends and family, all free of charge. To date seven centres have been designed by leading architects including: Richard Murphy, Page and Park, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and most recently Richard Rogers, whose London Centre received the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2009.

Built in the grounds of NHS hospitals in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, the Highlands and London, the projects are based on the vision of the late Maggie Keswick-Jencks who, whilst being treated for cancer at the hospital, identified the need for cancer patients to access emotional and psychological support.

Maggie’s chooses to build these special buildings because a bad environment can increase stress or anxiety – and the reverse is also true, knowing that people feel better and more positive when they are in a good, bright and heartening environment.

Maggie’s strives to create spaces, that are non-institutional and domestic in scale, but which are also unique. The institution architects to design buildings where people feel safe and valued and also to create an atmosphere that stimulates their imagination.

Further Information:
web: www.maggiescentres.org