Construction official begins today for OMA’s latest project, Maggie’s Centre Gartnavel. This facility is part of a pioneering project using thoughtful architecture and innovative spaces as tools for solace and healing. OMA’s design approach carefully composed a ring of interlocking spaces that provide moments of comfort and relief. With a flat roof and floor levels that respond to the natural topography, the rooms vary in height, with the more intimate areas programmed for personal uses such as counseling, and open spacious zones as gathering places creating a sense of community.
Located in a natural setting, like a pavilion in the woods, the building is both introverted and extroverted: each space has a relationship either to the internal, landscaped courtyard or to the surrounding woodland and greenery, while certain moments provide views of Glasgow beyond.
Architects: OMA Location: Glasgow, Scotland Client: Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres foundation Project Area: 534 sqm Photographs: Courtesy of OMA
The project, led by partners-in-charge Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon, and associate-in-charge Richard Hollington, will be completed in summer 2011. The Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres foundation, founded by Maggie Keswick Jencks and Charles Jencks, opened the first Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh in 1996, and has since commissioned a series of innovative buildings designed by world class architects. The foundation approached OMA to design the Glasgow site in 2007.
