Maggie’s Centres: A Blueprint for Cancer Care

John Hill
4. August 2014
Maggie’s Dundee, 2003; Architect: Frank Gehry, Gehry Partners, LLP; Landscape Design: Arabella Lennox-Boyd; Photo: © Maggie’s Centres

Although the Maggie's Centres are known by architects for being designed by the likes of these famous names, their success stems from what the CMOA describes as "focused concern for vanguard design in union with empathy and the empowerment of patients." Founded by Maggie Keswick Jencks (1941–1995), while she was being treated for cancer in Edinburgh, and her husband, well-known architectural writer Charles Jencks, 16 Maggie's Centres have been built in the UK, with 6 more in development. The small, bespoke buildings are the antithesis of large medical facilities that are prevalent in the UK and elsewhere. Further, each building has a strong landscape component, a clear extension of the interests and beliefs of both Charles, a landscape designer, and Maggie, who wrote a book on Chinese gardens.

Maggie’s Centres: A Blueprint for Cancer Care presents 5 of the 16 completed buildings through models, photographs, original drawings, and videos. The exhibition is organized by the New York School of Interior Design, and curated for CMOA by Raymund Ryan, curator of architecture.

Maggie’s Dundee, 2003; Architect: Frank Gehry, Gehry Partners, LLP; Photo: © Raf Makda, August 2003
Maggie’s Dundee, 2003; Architect: Frank Gehry, Gehry Partners, LLP; Interior, tower window; Photo: © Maggie’s Centres

Maggie’s Gartnavel, 20011; Architect: Rem Koolhaas, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); Image courtesy of OMA; Photo: Philippe Ruault
Maggie’s Gartnavel, 2001; Architect: Rem Koolhaas, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, OMA; Photo: © Nick Turner

Maggie’s Nottingham, 2011; Architect: Piers Gough, CZWG Architects; Photo: © Maggie’s Centres
Maggie’s Nottingham, 2011; Architect: Piers Gough, CZWG Architects; Interior Design, Paul Smith; Photo: © Martine Hamilton Knight

Maggie’s West London, 2008 ; Architect: Richard Rogers, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Landscape Architect: Dan Pearson; Photo: © Adam Hollier
Maggie’s West London, 2008; Architect: Richard Rogers, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Photo: © Richard Bryant

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