Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres exhibition, V&A

Maggie’s Highlands, designed by Page and Park
Maggie’s Highlands, designed by Page and Park
(Image credit: Christopher Simon Sykes)

Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres have been famously supporting those affected by cancer for 15 years now, but this is the first time this group of seven buildings is being seen together in a single show. Marking the organization's 15th anniversary, the

V&A is presenting 'The Architecture of Hope', the first all-inclusive exhibition of these remarkable buildings at the V&A and RIBA Architecture Gallery.

The network was initiated by and is named after Maggie Keswick Jencks. Together with her husband - the renowned architectural writer and critic Charles - Jencks believed that architecture could truly make a difference to our health, and worked to transform this powerful concept into reality.

Making a mark not only in health but also in terms of architecture, and with the first one built in 1996, the Centres have since engaged some of the world's most prominent architects to create buildings all around Britain; from

Frank Gehry to Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Richard Rogers - the list is truly star-studded.

Co-curated by the V&A and Maggie's, this exhibition firstly looks at the seven existing centres through models, drawings, photographs and specially commissioned films. There is the Edinburgh centre designed by Richard Murphy; the Glasgow one by Page and Park; one in Dundee by Frank Gehry of Gehry and Partners; in the Highlands by Page and Park; in Fife by Zaha Hadid; in London by Richard Rogers of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; and in Cheltenham by Sir Richard MacCormac CBE of MacCormac Jamieson Prichard Architects.

Additionally offering a glimpse into the future, the exhibition showcases models of the six further and currently ongoing centres; in Gartnavel (Glasgow) by Rem Koolhaas of Office of Metropolitan Architecture; in South West Wales by Dr Kisho Kurokawa of ArBITAT Architects; in Oxford by Chris Wilkinson of Wilkinson Eyre Architects; in Nottingham by Piers Gough of CZWG Architects with interior design by Sir Paul Smith; in North East by Ted Cullinan of Edward Cullinan Architects; and the Lanarkshire center by Neil Gillespie of Reiach and Hall.

The Maggie's Centres may be petite but they have not only provided comfort and a suitable inspiring and caring architectural environment for their patients over 15 years; they have also been a welcoming canvas for experimentation for the architects involved, creating a series of small but perfectly formed landmarks for Britain.

Maggie’s Fife, designed by Zaha Hadid of Zaha Hadid Architects

Maggie’s Fife, designed by Zaha Hadid of Zaha Hadid Architects

(Image credit: Werner Huthmacher)

Inside Maggie’s Fife

Inside Maggie’s Fife

(Image credit: Christopher Simon Sykes)

Maggie’s Dundee, designed by Frank Gehry of Gehry and Partners

Maggie’s Dundee, designed by Frank Gehry of Gehry and Partners

(Image credit: Keith Hunter)

Inside the lounge area of Maggie’s Dundee

Inside the lounge area of Maggie’s Dundee

(Image credit: press)

Inside the ’tower room’ of Maggie’s Dundee

Inside the ’tower room’ of Maggie’s Dundee

(Image credit: press)

Maggie’s London, designed by Lord Rogers of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Maggie’s London, designed by Lord Rogers of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

(Image credit: Richard Anderson)

Exterior of Maggie’s London

Exterior of Maggie’s London

(Image credit: Richard Anderson)

Interior of Maggie’s London

Interior of Maggie’s London

(Image credit: Richard Anderson)

Maggie’s Cheltenham, designed by Sir Richard MacCormac CBE of MacCormac Jameison and Pritchard Architects

Maggie’s Cheltenham, designed by Sir Richard MacCormac CBE of MacCormac Jameison and Pritchard Architects

(Image credit: Peter Durant, Sir Richard MacCormac)

Maggie’s Edinburgh, designed by Richard Murphy

Maggie’s Edinburgh

(Image credit: Richard Murphy)

Maggie’s in South West Wales by Dr Kisho Kurokawa of ArBITAT Architects

Maggie’s in South West Wales by Dr Kisho Kurokawa of ArBITAT Architects

(Image credit: press)

Maggie's in Gartnavel, Glasgow, by Rem Koolhaas of Office of Metropolitan Architecture

Maggie’s in Gartnavel, Glasgow, by Rem Koolhaas of Office of Metropolitan Architecture

(Image credit: press)

Exterior of Maggie's Glasgow

Exterior of Maggie’s Glasgow

(Image credit: press)

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).