Maggie’s Wales Building, Velindre Cancer Centre, Welsh Design, Architect
Maggie’s Cardiff : Cancer Care Centre Wales
Welsh Cancer Care Building Project – design by Dow Jones Architects
5 Jul 2012
Maggie’s Cardiff
Design: Dow Jones Architects
Maggie’s is coming to Velindre Cancer Centre
Maggie’s has announced it is to build a Centre at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff.
The partnership between Maggie’s and Velindre NHS Trust will benefit thousands of people living with cancer in Cardiff and the surrounding area.
Architects Dow Jones has agreed to design the Centre and is currently in talks with the Trust and Maggie’s to find a suitable site.
Simon Dean, chief executive of Velindre NHS Trust said: “We are really looking forward to working with Maggie’s and other partners to create new and improved cancer services for the future. Maggie’s is well respected as providing practical and psychosocial support for people affected by cancer and we look forward to this exciting partnership.”
Laura Lee, chief executive of Maggie’s said: “We are delighted to be coming to Cardiff and bringing a second centre to Wales following on from our opening in Swansea last year. It is very exciting to be working with Velindre Cancer Centre and Dow Jones.”
Biba Dow from Dow Jones Architects said: “Dow Jones Architects are thrilled to be working with Maggies, a charity we hugely admire. We are especially delighted to be working in Cardiff; the hospital is only a few miles from where Alun (Jones) grew up. We are in the process of working with Maggie’s and the staff at Velindre to find a suitable place for the new building on the site, and we are very much looking forward to developing our first thoughts.”
Maggie’s is recognised as a high quality, award-winning and innovative organisation providing support to anyone with cancer. The centre will provide free practical, emotional and social support for anyone affected by cancer as well as their family, friends and carers. It will significantly enhance the cancer care and support already offered at Velindre Cancer Centre.
The Maggie’s centre will be run by a team of cancer support specialists and will provide patients with unique psychosocial support, with the aim to transform the way people live with cancer. There are already ten Maggie’s centres in the UK and all are the work of world leading architects.
Support available at the centre includes psychological support, benefits advice, nutrition workshops, relaxation and stress management, art therapy, tai chi and yoga.
About Maggie’s:
The first Maggie’s centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996 and there are now 15 centres either open or under development across the UK and abroad. These include Edinburgh, Glasgow Gatehouse, Glasgow Gartnavel, Dundee, Highlands, Fife, West London, Cheltenham, Nottingham, Southwest Wales, Oxford, Lanarkshire, Aberdeen, Northeast and Hong Kong.
Maggie’s programme of support empowers people to live with, through and beyond cancer.
Maggie’s Centres are free to visit, no appointment is necessary and are for anyone affected by any type of cancer as well as their family and friends.
Some of the world’s leading architects have designed Maggie’s Centres, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers and Rem Koolhaas.
Last year more than 91,770 people visited Maggie’s centres across the UK.
Maggie’s model of support has been so successful that it is being taken forward in Hong Kong, Barcelona and Scandinavia.
Maggie’s president is HRH the Duchess of Cornwall.
About Dow Jones Architects Ltd:
Dow Jones Architects was founded in 2000 by Biba Dow and Alun Jones. The practice has designed a wide-ranging body of work, including the Garden Museum, the John Martin exhibition at Tate Britain, and is currently refurbishing the crypt of Christ Church Spitalfields.
It aims to make work which is well-crafted and conceptually clear, informed both by history and memory. The practice sees its work as making settings for the situations of everyday life, made available through an architecture of generosity.
The practice has won many awards, including the BD Refurbishment Architect of the Year in 2010.
Maggie’s Cardiff information from Maggie’s
Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre Buildings
Location: Swansea, Wales
Another Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre in Wales:
Maggie’s Southwest Wales
2007-12
Design: Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates with Garber & James
Maggies Wales
Kisho Kurokawa gifted the concept sketch for this Maggie’s Centre before his death in 2007. The ensuing design presented a challenge to the architects tasked with delivering the sketch in that the complex geometries had not been defined. The outcome is a special and glorious little building in many ways.
The established programme of the Maggie’s Centres, the social kitchen and dining space at a pivotal location in the building, is articulated beautifully in the plan diagram and the architectural form. Externally, the standing seam roof, which spirals and twists, prescribes the building’s form so appropriately. The concrete is of remarkable quality, with embedded titanium plates that glisten in the sunlight. This is a worthy addition to the spirit of Maggie’s.
Maggies Southwest Wales – RIBA Awards winner, 2012
Maggies Centre : Buildings
Another Cancer Care Centre in Cardiff on e-architect:
Teenage Cancer Trust Unit, Cardiff
ORMS Architects
Teenage Cancer Unit Cardiff
Welsh Architecture – Selection
National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff
Richard Rogers Partnership
National Assembly for Wales
Sleeperz Cardiff Hotel
Clash Associates
Sleeperz Cardiff Hotel
Cardiff Library Building
Design: BDP Architects
Cardiff Library Building
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff
BFLS
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Development
Comments / photos for the Maggie’s Cardiff, Wales page welcome
Maggie’s Cardiff Building – page
Website: www.maggiescentres.org.uk