Maggie's Centres

Driving architectural innovation in cancer care

For anyone who's ever had to spend time in hospital, it's almost universally agreed that they are not the best places to get better.Yet a growing number of healthcare professionals around the world believe that careful building design can improve recovery.

And Scotland is leading some advanced practice in healthcare building design.

The Maggie's Centres were the idea of Maggie Keswick Jencks. They are built in hospital grounds near to cancer care units to offer support and counselling for patients and family in a non-hospital setting.

The first was built in Edinburgh in 1996. Others soon followed in the Scottish cities of Glasgow, Dundee and Inverness, Kirkcaldy, and another recently in Lanarkshire.

Maggie Keswick Jencks, famous around the world for her daring garden designs and married to the architect Charles Jencks, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988. It was her experience as a patient that inspired Maggie's Centres.

During her long treatment she observed that overworked doctors and nurses had little time to consider the effect the buildings had on how patients recovered. Maggie noticed that waiting areas were not nice places in which to spend time and often made patients feel worse. She became determined to change hospitals to a new way of thinking.

From her experiences, she became a pioneer in raising awareness of how the environment aided recovery, which resulted in the first Maggie's Centre in Edinburgh.

The aim was to create a place of homely comfort for patients and family, away from the strip-lighting and sterile world of medical institutions – a place that would help both the physical and emotional self.

Maggie's centres are designed by architects who work free of charge for the charity:

• Edinburgh: Richard Murphy Architects 
• Kirkcaldy: award winning architect Zaha Hadid
• Glasgow: the local firm Page and Park
• Inverness: David Page of Page and Park (landscape designed by Charles Jencks)
• Dundee: internationally renowned Frank Gehry 
• Lanarkshire: Reiach & Hall of Edinburgh

Zaha Hadid's said of her design, "Every building you make, people should feel good in it."

Frank Gehry who designed the Dundee centre worked with staff at Maggie's to arrange the rooms in a suitable layout. Once this was agreed he then began designing the building around them. It is common for architects to draw inspiration from the surroundings and Frank based the design on ancient stone buildings called Brochs, found only in Scotland.

The main theme for all of the centres is "To make a welcoming place where staff have time to listen and would ‘understand the stress that comes with cancer." – Maggie Keswick Jencks.

Windows looking onto nature are very important in all the centres as it is widely agreed that being close to nature helps patients recover from illness.

It is fair to say that all those who use Maggie's Centres agree the buildings provide a unique place for cancer sufferers to ‘manage their fears’ and have a much better chance of recovery.

One user commented "Walking through the door of a Maggie's Centre will make a significant difference to how you live with cancer."

Useful links

• Maggie's Centres
• The Regeneration of Glasgow's Clydeside
• Zaha Hadid
• Scotland’s iconic buildings in an aerial tour of Scotland
• Nirupa Puliyel architecture student
• BBC Scotland HQ – leading the way in innovative architecture