Maggie’s is an extraordinary charity that provides free cancer support in centres across the UK. Built in the grounds of NHS hospitals, the centres are warm and welcoming and run by experts who help people live well with cancer.
Our site at Southampton was a challenging one: a set of nondescript buildings surrounded by a sea of carpark. Our solution was to bring a bit of magic to the place by imagining that a piece of garden had been transported from the New Forest into the midst of the hospital’s concrete landscape.
Connecting with nature has proven benefits on human health so the garden became central to every design choice we made as we searched to blend building with landscape. Cutting through the garden with four walls in a pinwheel plan, the one-storey centre emerges from the trees. It is filled with light that lifts the weight off the shoulders of all who work and visit there.
The kitchen is the heart of the centre and has strong visual connections to each of the gardens surrounding it. A skylight brings daylight and sky views deep into the building but when privacy is needed there are four rooms placed in the four corners.
For the walls, we chose a sustainable material that appeared to come from the earth. Ceramic stoneware blocks form a holistic construction system that is both load bearing – supporting the timber roof structure – and insulating. The colours of the clay and the tones of the glazes were made specifically for Maggie’s Southampton, and correspond with the bark of the trees.
The soft pastels promote a sense of stillness and calm. The four enclosed corners of the building are clad in rippled stainless steel, reflecting the landscape in its dappled surface. These reflective surfaces create the illusion that the garden is larger than it is – an impressionist portrait of garden, sky and ceramic.
Sarah Price was inspired by the diverse flora of the New Forest when designing the landscape for Maggie’s Southampton. Mirroring the pinwheel shape of the building, the garden is divided into four with each quarter responding to its aspect and season.
