Maggie’s Centre Hong Kong

Maggie’s Centres were one of the early pioneers of salutogenic design. They were the brainchild of Maggie Jencks, who, like so many others before her, felt the psychological toll of the hospital environment during her battle with cancer.

In her memoir, A View from the Front Line, she wrote, “Simply finding your way round is exhausting… Overhead (sometimes even neon) lighting, interior spaces with no views out and miserable seating against walls all contribute to extreme mental and physical enervation. Patients who arrive relatively hopeful soon start to wilt.” She was determined to find a way to change this for the better. She never lived to see the first centre built, but the impact of her idea has been so great that there are now 23 centres worldwide, with more in progress.

The cancer support centres are designed to feel as casual, warm and homey as possible. There is no front desk to prevent an institutional impression; access is free to all; visitors can help themselves to tea and coffee in the kitchen. Their premise is that cancer is frightening enough; providing support centres that feel as pedestrian and welcoming as your own home, for the purpose of providing information and support, can go some ways towards improving the experience of patients and their loved ones.

Maggie’s Centre Hong Kong, the first centre outside of the UK, opened in 2013. It was designed by Frank Gehry with Ronald Lu & Partners, with landscaping by Maggie’s daughter, landscape architect Lily Jencks. Located on the grounds of Tuen Mun Hospital, the building and garden were designed in parallel, with the relationship between indoors and outdoors driving the form.

The structure is a series of pavilions with intersecting rooflines. Some areas open fully to the landscape with floor-to-ceiling windows; in others, smaller windows and odd angles frame smaller gardens for a more intimate experience. The garden is inspired by Maggie Jenck’s own study of traditional Chinese gardens. Rather than emulating traditional designs, the landscaping is focused on two key principles: creating a fluid relationship between indoors and outdoors, and framing views of the garden from the building. This creates a feeling of harmony between the building and landscape, and provides multiple opportunities for patients to interact with nature.

This story was originally published in FuturArc 3Q 2019: Health and Well-being.

PROJECT DATA

Project Name
Maggie’s Centre Hong Kong

Location
Hong Kong

Completion Date
2013

Site Area
2,650 square metres

Gross Floor Area
350 square metres

Client/Owner
Maggie Keswick Jencks Cancer Caring Centre Foundation

Architecture Firms
Gehry Partners in collaboration with Ronald Lu & Partners

Images/Photos
Courtesy of Ronald Lu & Partners and Kalson Ho

Read more Healthcare stories below; stay tuned for FuturArc 1Q 2024: Health/Wellness!

Designing for Health

Designing for Health

How can we design healthcare facilities to enable the shift in thinking that healthcare is more than preventive care and pathogenesis? Can a hospital be designed to support health rather than just treating illnesses? The healthcare industry is constantly evolving, as patient needs shift, and new medication and technology change methods of treatment. The challenge of healthcare design is to keep pace with this evolution, anticipating the programmatic demands of 10 or 20 years later. Today, however, the healthcare landscape is shifting so rapidly that this may no longer be sufficient. We need to rethink our model of healthcare design; […]

How emerging architectural technologies can decentralise healthcare

How emerging architectural technologies can decentralise healthcare

The field of healthcare has typically been one that applies the latest cross-discipline technological advancements to treat illnesses. But more than just physical wellness, healthcare has also been evolving to take into account people’s well-being in the holistic processes of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. This also entails a consideration of our everyday environments. The topic of how healthcare systems could be distributed through emerging technologies into our various living spaces—such as transit hubs, communal areas and homes—was part of the exhibition titled Healthcare 2030: The Future of Distributed Healthcare at Singapore’s National Design Centre. Running from 11 March […]

Design for Aging is Design for All

Design for Aging is Design for All

Human lifespans are increasing around the world. According to WorldData.info, the average life expectancy worldwide rose from around 50.7 years for men and 54.6 for women in 1960 to 68.9 for men and 73.9 for women in 2021.1 Currently, this trend of aging populations is observed most significantly in developed regions—with Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore among countries with the highest life expectancies. Emerging economies are also experiencing this shift in various degrees, and the World Health Organisation posits that by 2050, 80 per cent of older people will be living in low- and middle-income countries.2 Everybody wants to live […]