Maggie’s Centre, Southampton

Maggie’s in Southampton is treasured both by patients and their families because it – and its sister sites – alleviates the psychological burden all too often overlooked in favour of physical treatments alone. Its bright, airy spaces – including a central ‘kitchen’ – encourage patient interactions whilst offering quiet, comfortable contemplative areas to simply sit and enjoy the gardens designed by RHS Chelsea Gold Medal winner Sarah Price.

Hospitals, inherently sterile for health reasons, often inadvertently create a clinical atmosphere that can be mentally taxing for patients – especially those who are required to spend long periods in them. Maggie’s, run by the NHS, exists as an escape for patients and their loved ones – away from the sterility – offering them emotional support, practical advice and the opportunity to speak to others who are experiencing the same – or a similar – situation.

When the founder of this concept, Maggie Keswick Jencks, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988, she was taken to a windowless corridor to process the news that she had three months left to live. In that moment, she and her husband Charles knew that there had to be a better way of communicating with and supporting cancer patients. Maggie’s was born, incorporating plenty of what we would term as ‘architecture of light’ into each of its sites – a far cry from that windowless corridor.

In 2021, the latest of these sites – Southampton – was being designed. Its roughly cross-shaped layout would place a central meeting space at its heart, while the off-shooting areas accommodate privacy, encourage quiet contemplation, and allow activities such as counselling and yoga to take place. Our challenge was to flood the space with natural light, an objective achieved with an overhead, circular, celestial rooflight above the central meeting space and floor-to-ceiling frameless structural glazing around the outside that has the added benefit of enhancing the visual impact of the garden.

Floor-to-ceiling, low-iron glazing was chosen for this project to minimise reflections when looking out at the New Forest-inspired garden and remove any potential visual barriers. Alongside its appearance, our high-performance glazing also boosts energy efficiency by minimising solar gains, keeping the building warm in winter and cool in summer – a balance achieved through the deployment of natural ventilation, low-emissivity coatings, and enhanced isolation.

A significant element of the project was the installation of over 300 square meters of EXYD-M specialist mirrored cladding panels. These panels not only added a striking visual appeal, resembling a moving water surface, but also enhanced the reflective quality of light.

For a seamless transition from inside Maggie’s to outside, Sky-Frame sliding glass doors have been incorporated into the design alongside the glass walls. Stepping into the facility and looking up, you will also see a large circular rooflight that gently highlights the central meeting point at Maggie’s heart.

Working on this project alongside architect studio AL_A has allowed us to demonstrate the many tangible health and well-being benefits associated with natural light. Glazing is at the heart of the design, deployed to create an environment that is bright, comfortable and conducive to healing.