Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre, Edinburgh - Phase I

Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre, Edinburgh - Phase I

Maggie's Centre at the Western General Hospital is the inspiration of the late Maggie Jencks who's vision was for a place cancer sufferers could go to get help and solace as well as access to independent and alternative sources of advice and treatment. Activities range from single and group counselling, beauty therapy, yoga and relaxation but above all the centre is a social meeting place where experiences can be shared.

The brief was, to a degree, indeterminate, and developed through close liaison with the client. The design aimed to create firstly an atmosphere of domesticity (in contrast to the institutional nature of many National Health Service buildings) and secondly, to create as much accommodation as possible within the limited volume available and to make it transformable in its spatial division; the centre is capable of being combined into a series of progressively larger spaces or divided into individual rooms.

The building consists of the original conversion of a disused stable building completed in 1996 and later extensions completed in 2001(see phase II).

Externally the construction is viewed as a building within a building with a new inner language of steel, lead, glass, glass blocks and timber sliding behind stone. When the extension was commissioned this existing language was extracted in both directions to continue the language.

Link to Cancer Caring Centre, Phase II



Architects Richard Murphy, Ed Hollis, Oliver Chapman
Engineers David Narro Associates
Contractor Peter Walker
Construction Cost £128,000
Client Maggie Keswick Jencks Cancer Caring Trust

Awards

  • RIBA Award 1997
  • RIBA/Department of Health National Award 1997
  • RIBA Stirling Shortlist 1997
  • EAA Conservation Award 1996

Press

Maggies's Friends The Herald Magazine 29 March 2008
Why Are The World's Best Architects Drawn To Maggie's Centres? The Herald Magazine 29 March 2008
Comfortable Surroundings Prospect March 1997
Murphy's Centre For Cancer Care Architects' Journal March 1997
Dealing With Cancer In A Relaxed With Sunday Times 30 March 1997
Patients Support Centre In Edinburgh Detail Magazine September 1997
Four In Race For Top Prize Project Scotland 9 October 1997
Stirling Short List Building Design November 1997
Design & Conquer - Stirling Prize Sunday Times 2 November 1997
Murphy Carries Scottish Hopes - Stirling Prize Project Scotland 6 November 1997
Stirling Prize Architects' Journal 6 November 1997
Healthy Building Syndrome Scotland On Sunday 14 Decemeber 1997
Maggies Centre Scottish Fields April 1998
Maggies Centre South East Asia Building May 1998
Murphy In Frame For "brooker" Of Building The Scotsman May 1998
Maggies Centre Lancet City Wins Top Award - Ccc Evening News 13 November 1998
Building Bravery - My Favourite Building Prospect Magazine December 1998
Building Humanity Back Into Hospitals The Scotsman 28 July 1999
A Vision Of The Future Evening News 10 September 1999
The Gehry Effect Livewire April / May 2001
Before Ground Floor Plan First Floor Plan External View Interior - Screens Closed Interior - Screens Open Internal View Stair