A new facility from a series of centers that provide free practical and emotional support to cancer patients and their loved ones will open at St Bartholomew's Hospital in northeast London. The environment, including a medieval church tower and 18th century hospital buildings, made it difficult to agree on the project, the public even opposed Hall's work, but on the second try the local council still approved the project - by a margin of one vote.
The Maggie Center will be located on the main square of the complex, next to the oncology department, which is considered one of the most advanced in Europe. Due to the lack of space, the building, unlike other horizontal structures of this series, is a compact three-story volume. The concrete supporting structure includes a central spiral staircase and the interior will be finished with bamboo. A small garden will be arranged on the roof, which will include a spacious hall for yoga and Taijiquan classes.
Like all Hall buildings, the Maggie Center project carries a variety of allusions. Colored inserts on the glass façade are designed to remind the medieval system of recording music - a deranged notation, and also the fact that the word "nevma" comes from the ancient Greek "pneuma" - life force, the breath of life. The supporting structure displayed on the facade looks like a hand, and the building as a whole is a “vessel of transcendence”. Such associations arose in Stephen Hall, among other things, in connection with the history of the place: the nearby Great Church of St. Bartholomew, founded simultaneously with the hospital - in 1123, is closely connected with the history of music.
Maggie Centers are opened at the largest hospitals in the UK with the help of a charitable foundation and are solely on donations. More than 3,000 new cancer patients visit St. Bartholomew every year, so such a facility is more than necessary there.
