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.

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. 

The building's translucent facade allows the interior to be filled with natural light throughout the day. “The glass facade geometry follows the geometry of the main interior stair along the north facade, while lifting up with clear glass facing the main square. Inside, the open curved staircase is integral to the concrete frame with open spaces vertically lined in bamboo. There is a second entry on the west opening to the extended garden of the adjacent church,” SHA says. The building tops out in a spacious public roof garden for meetings, yoga, and other social activities.