Understanding the Maggie’s Centres

This book provides designers and students with an in-depth analysis of the architecture of the world-renowned Maggie’s Centres, an international network of buildings offering support to people affected by cancer. Conceived by Maggie Keswick Jencks during her experience of terminal cancer, together with her husband Charles Jencks, landscape designer and architectural critic, the centres represent a radical rethinking of care environments.

Focusing on the relationship between architectural form and social activity, the book examines how and why the Maggie’s centres are so successful—addressing themes from the brief (Maggie Jencks’ ‘Blueprint’), through the manipulation of sensory and atmospheric qualities, to the role of the surrounding environment in providing occupants with a sense of refuge and comfort. The book also includes a comparative review of over 30 Maggie’s centres, designed by a select list of celebrated architects (including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers, and Snøhetta) and features over 60 pages of building information—an invaluable reference source for designers alongside the main thematic discussion.

The success of the Maggie’s centres has important global implications for the improvement of the design of care structures and therapeutic environments. The centres have established a flexible design methodology capable of uplifting the quality of life of the people involved. By helping to understand and identify these parameters, this book offers important insights for all students, scholars, and professionals involved in healthcare architecture, architecture for social care, as well as all those interested in the broad impact of architectural environments on people.

Daria Ricchi is Senior Lecturer of Architecture at Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Andrea Placidi is Senior Lecturer and Subject Coordinator for Interior Architecture at Oxford Brookes University, UK and the Research Lead for the Therapeutic Environment research group.

David Uzzell is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey, UK and formerly Director of the Environmental Psychology Research Group.