The Maggie Center is affiliated with Christie Hospital, which has a large and advanced oncology department. The new building, like all other centers of this charitable network, should complement a “regular” medical facility: there, in a comfortable, almost homely atmosphere, patients can get advice, do gymnastics, find the necessary literature in the library, or just relax - alone or with a company.
At the heart of the building, as with all Maggie's Centers, is the kitchen and large table. The rest of the premises are organized around, only the offices of the employees are raised to the mezzanine floor. Norman Foster's goal was to "dissolve" the building in the garden: he singled out exactly this, natural aspect of the British house, to which all the buildings of the network are oriented.
Therefore, the wooden frame is combined with abundant glazing, including on the roof; from the west, a spacious veranda was made, where you can spend time outdoors even in bad weather, from the south - a greenhouse, where patients can not only grow flowers (this will be a kind of psychotherapy), but also meet at a common table. All consulting and treatment rooms received their own garden from the eastern façade.
The low, horizontally elongated building is combined with the two-storey residential buildings of the neighboring streets. It is assumed that its wooden frame will become a support for climbing plants, which will partially entwine it, completing the dissolution of the building in the natural environment. The furniture for the Maggie Center was specially designed by Foster himself and by Foster + Partners' head of industrial design, Mike Holland.
The choice of an architect for the Maggie Center in Manchester was no coincidence: Norman Foster was born in this city and spent his youth there. In addition, as the architect himself emphasizes, the topic of fighting cancer is close to him, because he himself suffered from cancer.
