Bringing cancer support of the highest quality to people in Yorkshire Maggie’s, the charity which provides free practical, emotional and social support for people with cancer and their family and friends, has applied for planning permission for a new Maggie’s Centre in the grounds of St James’s University Hospital in Leeds. The Centre has been designed by the acclaimed Heatherwick Studio, founded in 1994 by Thomas Heatherwick. Working in partnership with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the new Maggie’s Yorkshire Centre will be built adjacent to the Bexley Wing, close to the hospital’s oncology unit.
The programme of support that we will be offering at Maggie’s Yorkshire will help to improve the physical and emotional wellbeing of people with cancer across the region. The Centre’s innovative design consists of a series of contained gardens that will capture the therapeutic effect of plants and contrast with the more formal surrounding hospital buildings. The design will create a warm, informal interior space as well as an inspiring exterior to encourage positivity among Centre visitors and passers-by. The building will take the form of a collection of stepped planter elements, each holding a piece of garden, bringing the planting into and over the building itself. Shared and private internal spaces will be playfully created between and within the planters.
Thomas Heatherwick comments: “We’re delighted to work with Maggie’s to bring a Centre to Yorkshire and to have the opportunity to create a positive environment which will help calm minds and foster a sense of well-being. The building will combine the qualities of a garden with shared and private spaces.” Heatherwick Studio’s building design provides the setting for the surrounding gardens which will be created by award-winning landscape designer Marie-Louise Agius of Balston Agius. There are already 18 Maggie’s Centres across the UK, online and abroad and all are designed by leading architects. The Centre is scheduled to open in 2017. Source by Heatherwick Studio, Images, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.