Background to Maggie's
Maggie's Centres were the vision of the designer and landscape architect Maggie Keswick Jencks when she herself was treated for cancer. She recognised the difficulties of accessing information and emotional support, which are so vital to people facing a diagnosis of cancer. She had a vision of beautiful buildings, located on hospital grounds, staffed by cancer professionals, where people could drop in at any time for a cup of tea and get information, support and inspiration to not only cope with cancer, but to live their lives to the full. There would be no 'right way,' just the tools to decide for yourself.
She worked tirelessly with her medical team in Edinburgh developing a blueprint of how a centre would run and died with the plans for the first centre on her bed. Over the past 12 years her husband Charles Jencks, the renowned architectural critic, and Laura Lee, her cancer nurse, have made her vision a reality. In 1996, a year after Maggie's death, the first centre bearing her name opened in Edinburgh, and since then tens of thousands of people affected by cancer have benefited from Maggie's innovative and pioneering programme of care. There are now five centres in Scotland - Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Highlands and Fife, plus an interim facility in Lanarkshire. The Scottish based charity expanded south of the border this spring with the opening of Maggie's London. Maggie's are currently in planning stages for a permanent centre in Lanarkshire and a second centre in Glasgow.
Updated List of all Maggies Centre Buildings + Designs with Architects, 5 Jan 2009:
Maggies Centres
Maggies Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland
Richard Murphy
Maggies Glasgow, Western Infirmary, Glasgow, Scotland
Page & Park
Maggies Dundee, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, Scotland
Frank Gehry
Maggies Fife, Fife, Scotland
Zaha Hadid
Maggies Highlands, Inverness, Scotland
Page & Park Architects
Maggies Lanarkshire, Monklands, Scotland
n/a
Maggies London, London, England
Richard Rogers
Maggies Wales, Swansea, Wales
Kisho Kurokawa
Maggies Nottingham, Nottingham, England
CZWG
Maggies North East, Newcastle, England : no design released yet
Foreign Office Architecture
Maggies Oxford, Oxford, England
Wilkinson Eyre
Maggies Cotswolds, Cheltenham, England
MacCormac Jamieson Prichard
Maggies Gartnavel, Glasgow, Scotland : no design released yet
Rem Koolhaas
Not to go ahead:
Maggies Sheffield, Sheffield, England
Hawkins & Brown
Maggies Cambridge, Cambridge, England
Daniel Libeskind
Relocated (to Monklands):
Maggies Wishaw, Wishaw, Scotland
Reiach and Hall Architects (previously by Ushida Findlay)
Maggie's Programme of Support
Maggie's Centres provide a programme of emotional and psychological support and practical advice to anyone affected by cancer. This includes a range of classes, from relaxation to tai chi to art therapy; a range of psychological support in group and one to one sessions run by trained psychologists; a library of information, with cancer support specialists on hand to answer question; benefits advice from benefits officer, and much more. All of these services are available on a drop in basis, free of charge, to people with cancer and their families, friends and carers.
The support offered is strictly evidence-based and designed to encourage people to find out what they can do to feel more in control and to live in a less stressful, more hopeful way. And all of this is offered - with a cup of tea - in an atmosphere that is determinedly non-institutional. Walking into Maggie's is like walking into the kitchen of a well-informed friend who has plenty of time to talk.
Architecture
Maggie knew the power of the environment to lift the spirits, and another unique feature of Maggie's is the architecture. Its centres are designed by some of the most respected architects of our time - most of whom were friends of Maggie's. The architects work to a demanding brief, which beyond the purely practical requirements, asks them to produce spaces in which people feel safe and welcome but also have their imagination and their curiosity kindled. This brief has inspired stunning, award winning designs. It gave Zaha Hadid her first commission in Britain when she designed the startling black building that is Maggie's Fife. And internationally acclaimed architect, Frank Gehry - of Bilbao Guggenheim fame - was behind Maggie's Dundee.
Scottish Architecture
Edinburgh : back to index
Comments / photos for the Maggie's Centre Architecture page welcome:
info@edinburgharchitecture.co.uk
Maggies Centres Building : page - adrian welch / isabelle lomholt
Website : www.maggiescentres.org