Fast Company Design: Snøhetta To Build A Cutting-Edge Cancer Clinic, For Healing With Humanity
Over the last 15 years, nine Maggie’s Centres have sprung up around the U.K. to support people affected by cancer. Rather than administering medical treatment, these facilities provide comforting environments for those coping emotionally and psychologically with the disease, and their unique approach is matched by their commitment to innovative architecture. The newest center on the roster is a flying-saucer-like pavilion proposed by Snøhetta that, funding withstanding, is expected to set down in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Snøhetta follows a string of starchitects who have designed Maggie’s branches, including Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers, and Rem Koolhaas. This particular center would sit on the grassy southern edge of the Forester Hill Hospital, oriented to receive both southern and western light. A softly curving exterior envelops the entire structure and defines the courtyard garden, a secluded outdoor space covered in a mix of hard and soft surfaces: a concrete-paved path frame a soft cover of foliage and a centrally planted cherry tree. A group of beech trees will mark the entrance, and a new planting of maples will be added to a row of preexisting trees. Says Maggie’s CEO Laura Lee in a press release: “This is a building that will first and foremost provide the ideal environment for people facing cancer in the region to gain support, whilst also greatly contributing to architecture within the region.”
