Maggie's at The Royal Marsden

We were appointed by Maggie’s to work alongside Ab Rogers Design on the design of a new iconic Maggie’s Centre set within the grounds of world-leading cancer centre The Royal Marsden in Sutton. Maggie’s pride themselves on commissioning buildings that are unique, thoughtful and most importantly feel like a “home from home that’s designed to feel nothing like a hospital.”

The new centre is at the heart of a beautiful garden, within the hospital grounds, designed by world-renowned landscape architect Piet Oudolf. The scope of works involved the construction of a new two storey building, clad in beautiful handcrafted terracotta tiles, including a cantilevered library, cantilevered roof, large open spaces and full height windows. The building consists of five blocks, with each block escalating in height that wrap around a central courtyard. A double-height kitchen is at its heart with a balcony above.

Structural challenges included;

creating large open spaces within the building that were virtually column free, elegantly solved with the combination of discrete braced and portal frames
resolving the complex geometry of the roof structures with simple structural detailing the support to the hand crafted terracotta tile cladding, with bespoke cantilever edges.
resolving steel and glass tolerances to achieve the structure free glazed ribbons that link each overlapping block.
elegantly supporting the staircase and gallery, conceived as a bright red ribbon cutting through the atrium is discreetly supported on a series of cantilever steels, supporting the curved feature steel staircase and balustrade
partially burying the final building, the garden room within the landscape, combining off shutter concrete with expressed timber framing to the large glazed opening

These numerous challenges were resolved, working collaboratively with Ab Rogers Design, to deliver this stunning building for Maggie’s.