The place

Maggie’s Centres help anyone affected by cancer – patients, their family members or friends. Maggie’s West London, at Charing Cross Hospital in west London, is a flexible, adaptable ‘open house’ arranged over one-and-a-half floors, and enclosed by a wall and garden to provide a buffer with the busy streetscape.

The brief

Landscaping is a fundamental component of all the Maggie’s Centres – a source of calm and composure for visitors. At Maggie West London, our task was to integrate the standalone building into the main hospital site, while creating a distinct, therapeutic environment around the building, adding to its healing potential.

The design

The centre is approached along a ‘woodland walk’ of plane trees and hardy groundcover, and a short corridor signals the entrance with rustling evergreen bamboos and small sculptures. Around the building, pink-stemmed birch create an extra shield against the urban surroundings and offer a green backdrop for the mezzanine level of office spaces and roof terraces. Inner courtyards on three sides are planted with exotic architectural plants to provide interest all year round.

This quietly confident building is truly, unquestionably a haven for those who have been diagnosed with cancer. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ achievement is in having created a completely informal, home-like sanctuary to help patients learn to live with cancer.

Conceived as a two-storey pavilion, the centre’s positive spirit is signalled with a bold roof canopy that hovers high above the walls to sail protectively over a series of intimate internal gardens, courtyards and roof terraces. A deep orange rendered wall puts a protective arm around it and serves as a backdrop for carefully planted tree groves and gardens, making it a place apart without denying it is a part of the city.  This antithesis of a hospital provides an open house in the city.

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has produced a timeless work of architecture that not only distils the intentions of this brief, but expresses in built form compassion, sensitivity and a deep sense of our common humanity.

2009 RIBA Stirling Prize | Jury Statement