A Design Competition for a New Maggie’s Centre
an inspiring project for schools
Entry Pack
This resource pack will help with your submission to the Maggie’s Centre design competition. What you will
find in this pack:
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A short introduction to architecture
Explanation of architectural terms
Maggie’s Centres case studies
Classroom suggestions and starters
Submission requirements
Maggie’s architectural brief
Who was Maggie?
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A short introduction to Architecture
As an architect you need imagination and creativity to come up with a design that will remain in good
condition for a long period of time, will serve the needs of the people using it and importantly, will be
attractive to look at. Here are some elements to help you to design your own Maggie’s Centre.
Explanation of architectural terms
Scale
Architects scale drawings either 2, 5, 10, 20 or 50 times smaller than the real size, or even smaller than
that. For your Centre we recommend you work in the scale 1:50. That means one metre will be represented
on your drawing by two centimetres.
scale 1:100
scale 1:50
Scale model
This is a small version or maquette of your design. Architects make a scale model to explain their design
to the client in three dimensions. You can use scale model people to make it easier to understand. A scale
model is ideal to photograph from an angle. In the design process, architects use scale models to explore
ideas, even at the very early beginning. The model doesn’t need to reflect a realistic design, but could
explore shapes, spaces, material, openings, dimensions, colour, light, etc. Below are some images for
inspiration.
exploring design through scale models
scale model of the Maggie’s Centre in Dundee
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Drawings are an important way for an architect to communicate design ideas. A basic set of conventional
drawings that are used:
1. The elevation - This is a 2d representation of the vertical surfaces of the building, showing the
configuration of doors, windows and material. Depending on the shape of the design and relevance of the
drawing, there may be a front and back elevation and two side elevations. With more complicated designs,
you may need more elevation drawings to explain your design.
bird’s eye persepctive
side elevation
front elevation
2. A plan drawing - This is a horizontal section, taken approximately a metre above the floor. Depending on
the shape and design of the building, there could be several plans for different floors.
bird’s eye persepctive
section 1m above floor level
plan drawing
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bin
gate
This is the floorplan for the Maggie’s Centre in the
Highlands. Notice that the landscape has been drawn as
part of the plan drawing. All the Maggie’s Centres work to
integrate inside and outside space, which can be shown best
in the floorplan drawing.
gate
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3. A section drawing - This is a vertical section, taken at a location which can best explain the design, most
likely to show the window and door openings. Depending on the shape and design of the building, there
could be a series of section drawings to explain your design.
bird’s eye persepctive
section taken over windows
section drawing
4. A sketch - A sketch could be a scribble reflecting an initial idea. It could be a quick summarising drawing,
showing the essence of the design. Sketches can be used in the very beginning of the design process to
test and explore ideas. By sketching your ideas on paper, you can test the ideas you’ve got in your head.
Sketches are also ideal to communicate with fellow designers and to show the design essence to your
client.
sketches for the Maggie’s Centre Gatehouse in Glasgow
‘The whole building feels informal, family like - it somehow brings
people together.’
Bruce Tasker, Centre visitor
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Case Studies
When you start a design, it is helpful to look at inspiring examples of other buildings, shapes, layouts,
spaces, details, use of material, etc. Studying these examples will enrich your own design ideas. You can
find examples of architecture all around you. Is there an interesting building in your street, or do you have
an interesting school building? Have a look on the internet or visit a library. You decide what you think is
inspiring to you. Below is a selection of Maggie’s Centre designs to inspire you.
Maggie’s Dundee
opened in 2003
Architect: Frank Gehry
Landscape Architect:
Arabella Lennox-Boyd
What the architect says:
‘There is a Yiddish expression,
“Heymish”. It means homelike,
comfortable. That’s what we were
trying to do there.’
Frank Gehry, Frank Gehry Partners
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Maggie’s Highlands
opened in 2005
Architect: David Page
Landscape Architect:
Charles Jencks
What the landscape architect says:
‘[David Page and I] came to a design
that was a bit of a garden and a bit of
building. I’d been reading about the
secret language of cells and suggested
we make the building itself a dividing
cell, conceived as the inversion of one
of the mounds.’
Charles Jencks
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Maggie’s Glasgow (Gartnavel)
opened in 2011
Architect: Rem Koolhaas
Landscape Architect:
Lily Jencks
What the architect says:
‘We accepted the commission with
eagerness. The space we have is
linked to the existing hospital, but far
enough away from it for us to create
another world. It has both privacy and
a central position; both sheltered and
slightly exposed.’
Rem Koolhaas
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This wall can have
embedded post
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*1/2 height wall
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Concrete
Lining / non-structural
Fireplace
Roof
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Maggie’s Fife
opened in 2006
Architect: Zaha Hadid
What the architect says:
‘The building responds to a certain
need after visiting the hospital and
the process of chemotherapy...it
provides a place between all that
and going home. It’s a kind of buffer
in that sense, the idea that you
re-enter the world through a small,
domestic-scaled environment.’
Zaha Hadid
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Maggie’s Cheltenham
opened in 2010
Architect: Sir Richard MacCormac
Landscape Architect:
Dr Christine Facer Hoffman
What the architect says:
‘It’s not really a building; it’s a large
piece of inhabited furniture with a roof
hovering above it. Furniture is more
immediate than buildings are: we use
it, touch it, engage with it. Through
the joinery we convey care, so that
when people come in they feel they
have come to a place about care’
Sir Richard MacCormac
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Suggestions for the classroom to explore architecture and to start the
design competition
1. Make a scale floorplan of the classroom.
An exercise for smaller groups in class, 4 or 5 pupils per group. Find and study existing floor plans, from a
library, the internet or in this entry pack. With a tape measure, the group can make measurements, length,
width and height of the classroom, but also position and dimension of windows and doors. The floor plan
drawing can be to scale 1:50 or 1:20. Indicate the layout of desks and chairs on your drawing.
2. Make interior sketches of the classroom
An individual exercise. Every pupil picks two or three viewpoints from which to sketch the classroom. It
is helpful to include people in the sketches, to add a sense of the human scale in the built environment.
Alternatively, each pupil can pick one view, but use different techniques to make a sketch. For example,
working with charcoal, paint, pen, pencil or colour. Afterwards the work can be discussed in smaller groups.
This is not about assessing the accuracy of the drawing, but respecting each others’ work and comparing
the atmospheres that the finalised sketches convey. Allow only two to five minutes for each sketch.
Additional time can be given to work up the artwork, if needed.
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3. Draw a storyboard of your route through the school building
An individual exercise. In small groups, the pupils can mark a route through the school, making interior
sketches on key points. Ask pupils to imagine themselves as a film director making a film about the school.
Which viewpoint would they choose to record to explain the building best? Divide an A4 piece of paper
into nine rectangles, each rectangle allocated for a viewpoint. Eventually you will end up with a cartoon or
storyboard showing a story from beginning to end. The results can be discussed in the group. Is the story
clear for others to read and understand?
4. Go outside and sketch a building
An exercise for small groups. Every pupil can pick two or three viewpoints of a building and make a sketch.
It is helpful to include people in the sketches to add a sense of the human scale in the built environment.
Alternatively each pupil can pick one view, but use different techniques to make a sketch. For example,
working with charcoal, paint, pen, pencil or colour. Afterwards the work can be discussed in smaller
groups. At the end the smaller groups can present their sketches of a building to the class. This is not about
assessing the accuracy of the drawing, but respecting each others’ work and comparing the atmospheres
that the finalised sketches convey. Allow only two to five minutes for each sketch. Additional time can be
given to work up the artwork, if needed.
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5. Discuss the architectural brief
An exercise for small groups. Hand out a copy of the architectural brief for the Maggie’s design competition.
Let everybody read the brief and think of at least three questions. These questions can be discussed
within the group to reach a full understanding what the brief means. The answers may differ per group.
Remember, there is no wrong or right in architecture. Key for the architect is to have an understanding
of what the client wants. It may be helpful to make sketches of how you would interpret the brief as a
designer.
6. Analyse one of the Maggie’s Centres from the entry pack
An exercise for small groups. Each group can pick one of the Maggie’s Centres as documented in this entry
pack. You can look for more information if you like, in a library or on the internet. Research the design
carefully, try to imagine walking through the building. You could draw the floorplan or elevation drawing,
trace the photographs, count the windows and doors or make other relevant notes. At the end of the
exercise each group can present their research to the class through sketches, drawings and models.
Tip: Remember to enjoy the design process. If you’re stuck and are out
of ideas, loosen yourself up, share your thoughts with fellow pupils,
find inspiration, take a walk, etc. A good design comes from a well
inspired mind.
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Helpful information about submission requirements
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A design statement (max 50 words)
A plan drawing 1:50
Three images of a model scale 1:50
Two sketches or images of the design development
Two interior images showing the intended atmosphere of your design
These are the nine submission requirements as you will have seen in the architectural brief for the Maggie’s
design competition. Have a good look at the them. Do you understand what is being asked for? How much
time do you have to develop the design and produce the required drawings, models and photographs?
Here are some explanations:
Design Statement
A 50 word paragraph, similar to the paragraph in the case studies provided with this entry pack.The
statement describes your design intentions, the atmosphere you would like to achieve in your design and
your inspiration for the design.
Design development
This could be a sketch, a drawing, a scale model, a photograph of a scale model, a table full of materials,
testing different shapes, colours, etc. This should give the jury panel insight into the design process you
have been through.
Remember that the nine submission elements will need to represent your design without you. So make
sure that the elements tell your story in a clear and engaging manner.
If you have any questions, contact [email protected]
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THE ARCHITECTURAL BRIEF
PURPOSE OF MAGGIE’S CENTRES
• To provide non-residential support and information facilities for people with cancer, and for their
families and friends.
• The building will offer its users a calm friendly space where each individual can decide what strategy
they want to adopt to support their medical treatment and their overall welfare.
• They will be able, if they so wish, to have a private conversation with the programme director or the
clinical psychologist about their situation and needs.
• On offer within the building will be a free programme, which will include group support, family and
friends support, relaxation sessions, information access and benefits advice. (See Maggie’s Centre
booklets and website for programme and timetables.)
• People may choose to do any of this programme or none of it. Some will want to use the Centre to have
a cup of tea and a quiet pause. Others will be helped by offering volunteer services themselves, such as
gardening. And others, again, will want to join support groups and actively participate.
• We do not want to suggest there are better or worse ways of dealing with cancer. Any way that helps
anybody going through cancer to feel better is fine, with the important proviso that any service offered
in the building will be approved by the Professional Advisory Board and will be complementary and not
alternative to orthodox medical treatment.
• Approximate size of a Maggie’s Centre is 280m2.
REQUIREMENTS FOR MAGGIE’S
• Entrance: obvious, welcoming, not intimidating.
• Small coat-hanging/brolly space.
• A welcome/sitting/information/library area, from which the layout of the rest of the building should
be clear. There should be as much light as possible. There should be views out to grass/trees/sky. You
should be able to see where the kitchen area is, equally the sitting room and fireplace-area (hearth &
home). Maggie suggested a fish tank.
• Office space for a) Centre Head and b) fundraiser/deputy. This should be easily accessible from the
welcome area so that either person working at a desk can see somebody come into the Centre, in order
to welcome them. Their space should be separate enough that the welcome area does not seem like an
office or a reception area. There should be storage space for stationary/pamphlets/bumph accessible
to the office space. Space should be allocated for a photocopier, printer, server and other office
machinery. Each workstation needs a telephone, computer point and light, shelf and drawer space. As
well as the main ones there should be for 5 other workstations, which can be quite small. Can we have
this many work stations without it appearing to be like a huge office which dominates the Centre? They
don’t have to all be in one block. Somewhere for staff to hang coats.
• A video-viewing and computer-link information area or bay for the use of 4 people, probably not all
together, but within shouting distance of the programme director’s office area, so that he/she can help
if necessary.
• A kitchen area, like a ‘country’ kitchen, with room for a large table to sit 12, which could be used for
demonstrations/seminars/discussion groups. The kitchen should be relaxed and inviting enough for
anybody to feel welcome to help themselves to coffee or tea. A central ‘island’ on which cooking
demonstrations could take place would be helpful.
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• A large room for relaxation groups/lectures/meetings. A space sufficient to take a maximum of 14
people lying down. Storage space for relaxation/folding chairs. As much as possible, you should be able
to open and shut walls (perhaps between this and welcome area/kitchen area) to have flexi-space, for
more or less privacy, as occasion demands. The relaxation space should be capable of being soundproof
when closed off.
• Two smaller sitting/counselling room for 12 people with a fireplace or stove. This doesn’t have to be
very big – it makes for a friendlier atmosphere if people have to budge up a bit. Perhaps there should
be dividing doors to become a second large room, although each one would need to be individually
soundproof.
• Two (or one if the large room can sub-divide) small rooms for counselling or therapy, preferably with
big windows looking out to grass/trees/sky. They should have a bit of character and perhaps they could
have sliding doors that can be left open and be inviting when not in use. They should be soundproof.
One should be able to take a treatment bed, preferably facing a window.
• Lavatories (probably 3) with washbasins and mirrors, and at least one that is big enough to take a chair
and a bookshelf. They should not be all in a row with gaps under the doors. Private enough to have a
cry.
• A very small quiet space to have a rest/lie down.
• Outside: garden areas and 10 parking spaces. If this is unlikely on the site, if possible make a drop-off
and pick-up area and perhaps a couple of disabled spaces. We like the idea of a continuous flow
between house and garden space there should be somewhere to sit, easily accessed from the kitchen.
We want the garden, like the kitchen, to be an easy public space for people to share and feel refreshed
by. The relationship between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ is important. A house protects you from the
‘outside’. Equally the ‘outside’ of a garden is a buffer to the real ‘outside’. It is a place where you can feel
sheltered but enjoy a bit of the kinder sides of nature. There are practical considerations about privacy,
referred to later; we also want to consider how a garden can help invite you in through the door from
the street (which is always a key factor) and maybe how to incorporate parking spaces without them
being too intrusive.
PRACTICALITIES
We have got to run each Maggie’s Centre as economically as possible without compromising what we are
trying to offer. We know that any kind of complex building costs more to build, but it will have to be borne
in mind, at design level, that we have a small building budget and that subsequent building maintenance
and cleaning should be as cheap as possible: wood floors/ease of access/6 light fittings preferable to 56.
It might help to think of this as a ‘positive’ restraint, not an economic constraint, in the sense that the aim
of this project is to build a modest, humane building, which will encourage and not intimidate.
OVERALL
We want to make spaces that make people feel better rather than worse (most hospitals).
Some things are obvious:
• As much light as possible.
• Important to be able to look out – and even step out – from as many ‘rooms’ as possible into something
like a garden, a courtyard, or ‘nature’. At the same time, the sitting/counselling rooms (8) and (9) should
have privacy, ie if they do have doors to the outside ‘rooms’, passers-by shouldn’t intrude.
• The interior spaces shouldn’t be so open to the outside that people feel naked and unprotected. They
should feel safe enough inside that they can look out and even go out if they wanted...this describes a
state of mind, doesn’t it?
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• We want to have the minimum possible ‘administration office’ type atmosphere. No doors with
‘fundraiser’ on the outside. We want the ethos and scale to be domestic. We need to think of all the
aspects of hospital layouts, which reinforce ‘institution’ – corridors, signs, secrets, confusion – and then
unpick them.
• As a user of the building, we want you to approach the building, and see an obvious and enticing door.
When you come in, we want the first impression to be welcoming. People may come to ‘have a look’,
the first time.
• We want Centre users to feel encouraged and not daunted: they are likely to be feeling frightened and
very low anyway. We want them to have an idea of what is going on in the whole building when they
come in. We want them to feel they have come into a family community in which they can participate,
make their own tea or coffee, use a computer, sit down and borrow a book, even find somewhere they
might have a sleep for half an hour. Things shouldn’t be too perfect.
• The rooms used for counselling should be completely private when they are in use; but it would be no
bad thing if they could be opened up when they were not. We want users to know that they can say
things in confidence and be quiet, but also be conscious that other things are going on around them
that they might be interested in. For instance, they might be able to see what is going on in the kitchen
but will not necessarily want to participate in the kitchen chat.
• We want the building to feel like a home people wouldn’t have quite dared build themselves, and which
makes them feel that there is at least one positive aspect about their visit to the hospital which they
may look forward to.
• We want the building to make you feel, as Maggie made you feel when you had spent time with her,
more buoyant, more optimistic, that life was more ‘interesting’ when you left the room than when you
walked into. Ambitious but possible?
‘I just felt the building enveloped me in love...it’s bright, it’s light and
the first thing you do is smile.’
Trudy McLeay, Centre visitor
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Who was Maggie?
Maggie’s Centres are places that follow the ideas about cancer care, originally laid out by Maggie Keswick
Jencks.
Maggie lived with terminal cancer for two years, and during that time she used her knowledge and
experience to create a blueprint for a new type of care. Care based around the places that let people with
cancer feel in control and not part of a production line; care that recognises the importance of reassuring
spaces when people are feeling vulnerable; and care that never allows people to “lose the joy of living in
the fear of dying”, as she put it. She died in 1995 but her ideas live on today in the Centres that bear her
name.
“Above all what matters is to not lose the joy of living in the fear of
dying.”
Maggie Keswick Jencks
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