Alison Brooks Architects (ABA) has been selected to design the latest Maggie's Centre, at the edge of the Musgrove Park Hospital Grounds in Somerset, England. Known as Maggie's Taunton, the project is a collaboration between ABA, Johanna Gibbons of JLH Landscape Architecture, and structural engineers Webb Yates.
Maggie's is a charity that provides free practical, emotional, and social support for cancer patients and their families and friends. Considering architecture as a vital element of care, since 1996 the organization has commissioned a who's who of contemporary practices to design their facilities, including Frank Gehry, OMA, Rogers Stirk Harbour, Steven Holl, and the late Zaha Hadid.
"We are so pleased to be bringing Maggie's Centre to Taunton and are excited by the designs put forward by Alison Brooks and JLG Landscape Architecture," said Maggie's Chief Executive Laura Lee. "Great design and architecture are integral to what we do at Maggie’s as each and every one of our Centres is specifically designed to welcome people with cancer and offer them a place to seek practical advice, talk to other people with cancer or just to sit quietly with a cup of tea while awaiting appointments or results.”
"We’re honoured and delighted to be working with Maggie’s to design a new Centre in Taunton," said Alison Brooks. "Our project will build on Maggie Keswick Jencks’ legacy of extraordinary and uplifting spaces for cancer patients and their families with creative working environments for the Maggie’s team. Taunton is in a beautiful part of Somerset and we hope our project, overlooking the Blackdown Hills, will make the most of this opportunity.”
Maggie's Taunton does not yet have an expected date for completion. The commission represents Alison Brooks Architects' first project in the health sector.
