The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
The Maggie’s will be built in a ‘forgotten corner’ of the hospital’s car park and will replace its existing Cancerkin centre following the merging of the two support units in 2016.
The centre is a standalone project and will be built ahead of other developments in the Pond Street hospital’s wider masterplan.
Libeskind’s design includes an ‘approachable and undulating timber form’ and a roof garden, conceived as a ‘serene enclosure’ for visitors.
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The façade’s prefabricated vertical louvres, to be manufactured offsite, are oriented to act as shading devices and create intimate spaces inside the building.
The 26-room building has gardens in the rear and front along Rowland Hill Street, which provides direct access into the two entry points of the building.
A report by planners at Camden Council said the new building would be ‘high-quality and iconic’, adding that the proposal would see ‘improvements in terms of landscaping and biodiversity’.
A planning application for the scheme was submitted in autumn 2019, but has only just been given planning permission as Maggie’s Centres and Camden Council have been in negotiating a legal agreement about a construction management plan and an associated monitoring fee.
A spokesperson for Maggie’s said: ‘We are delighted to have been granted planning for our new cancer support centre designed by world renowned architect Daniel Libeskind.
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‘Our plans for a purpose built centre will ensure we are able to support as many people as possible living with cancer, as well as family and friends, from across the area served by the Royal Free Hospital. We hope our centre will be open by the summer of 2022.’
Daniel Libeskind has previously told the AJ he had first been asked to design a Maggie’s Centre in the early 2000s, and the design was the result of an ‘amazing’ 16-year journey with the charity.
He described the final product as a ‘modest building’ with a soft, intimate sculptural structure which included places for visitors to meet and yoga spaces.
‘If the Royal Free Hospital is a machine to heal people, this is a home. It’s not like entering an institution, it is a place where people can come and find comfort,’ he said.
Libeskind added that the Maggie’s commission proved architecture itself had the ability to provide healing. ‘It can help overcome trauma,’ he said.
Architect’s View
Visitors to the Maggie’s Centre at the Royal Free will be able to visually identify its presence from afar, as it has been designed to contrast with its more clinical hospital surroundings, drawing in newcomers with an approachable and undulating timber form. We have maximised the potential of the site by keeping the footprint small at the ground level, and expanding the form as the building rises.
Although limited in size, the site is landscaped with both soft and hardscape areas and offers quiet seating as well as connecting to existing walkways on the hospital campus. The building is nestled into a planted garden in the rear and fronts along Rowland Hill Street, which provides direct access into the two entry points of the building. An additional garden component of the design has been elevated to the roof level to create a serene enclosure for visitors, a peaceful outdoor retreat that aligns with the canopies of the surrounding foliage. Timber has been chosen as a renewable material to emphasise the building’s human character, and to further differentiate it from its surroundings.
The prefabricated vertical louvers forming the facade have been oriented to act as shading devices, creating intimate spaces within the interior, but also framing views and admitting diffuse natural light. Interior layouts have been composed to maximise natural light exposure along the building perimeter; additional light is ushered in from the roof garden skylights above.
Spaces flow freely from one programme area to the next, enabling moments of quiet and repose, but also engendering dialogue and socialisation with other guests. Both form and materiality embody a nurturing quality -- one that provides a sense of calm and relief as visitors cross its threshold. The experience within the building is primarily focused on the community and support found there; exterior and sky views are sensitively framed to maintain this focus.
Concept sketch for Maggie's Centre by Daniel Libeskind
Very reminiscent of that post-9/11 ‘ground zero’ image of the splayed mullions of one of the destroyed twin towers..
Presumably just coincidence.
Where did the bike hoops go? How many doors does this building have? Where is that man going? Why is that Eames chair there? Is that a BAR? What is that ground floor space even for? Won’t the “garden” be full of empty crisp packets and Evian bottles… I am a tad miffed that such a privileged commission has been wasted on show boating, shape shifting nonsense like this. It’s a MAGGIES centre – have some damn respect. Also – that is not a butterfly.