Archinect - News

Steven Holl Architects' Maggie's Centre at Barts is now open

2017-12-14T19:27:00-05:00

Over two years after the groundbreaking, the new Maggie's Centre Barts in Central London finally opened earlier this week. Located throughout the UK, Maggie's Centres offer free practical and emotional support for people who live with cancer and their loved ones.

Steven Holl Architects, along with UK firm jmarchitects, designed the 3-story building as a “vessel within a vessel within a vessel”. The new Maggie's Centre replaces a 1960s brick structure, adjacent to a 17th-century stone structure by James Gibbs.

Photo: Iwan Baan.

Built next to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (London's oldest hospital), the Centre's exterior shows off a translucent glass facade that gives the structure a glowing appearance. The facade has colored glass fragments arranged in horizontal bands like a musical staff, in reference to the “neume notation” of 13-century Medieval music, SHA describes.

Photo: Iwan Baan.

The building's translucent facade allows the interior to be filled with natural lig...

Construction kicks off for Steven Holl-designed Maggie's Centre Barts in London

2015-06-11T20:25:00-04:00

A groundbreaking ceremony yesterday marked the beginning of construction for the new Maggie's Centre Barts that's coming to Northeast London next year. The 18 Maggie's Centres across the UK offer free practical, emotional and social support for people with cancer and their loved ones. During the ceremony, a large banner thanking everyone involved in the project was unveiled on site and a time capsule to be opened in 2065 was compiled -- in tradition with every Centre that is built. The capsule consisted of a signed watercolor print from Steven Holl, framed Hong Kong bank notes from British bank institution HSBC, and archive materials from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

The new Centre will be built on a 725 m2 site within the richly historic grounds of the 12th-century St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London's oldest hospital. With Steven Holl commissioned for architectural design in association with UK firm JM Architects, the Barts Centre will be a more vertical "vessel within a vessel withi...