Buildings designed to care: 30 years of Maggie's Centres

Can a building really make you feel better? Kirsty Speers thinks it can.

"I think for me it has been so important and instrumental in my journey with cancer, and I have no shadow of a doubt that the building and the space has played a massive role in that - so absolutely," she says.

In 2024, she was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer - Pseudomyxoma - which generally starts in the appendix.

She is convinced that going to the Maggie's Centre in Dundee helped.

"It's a space that allows you to have conversations and have that support that you didn't really know you even needed either," she adds.

"I think the building just adds to that immensely."

Kirsty's story is part of an exhibition at the V&A Dundee looking into the links between architecture and health to mark 30 years of Maggie's Centres.

The blueprint for the centres was designed by Maggie Keswick Jencks while she was living with advanced cancer.

She was a writer, gardener and designer who dreamt of buildings that would help people "not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying".

She died before the first one opened in Edinburgh in 1996 but key to her plans was the combination of outstanding architecture and expert care.

Meredith Moore is the curator of the new exhibition.

"I believe really strongly that a building has the power to make you feel better," she says.

"And I think Maggie's Centres are an amazing example of this."

After Maggie's death, her husband, architect Charles Jencks, went on to steer the building of further cancer centres across the UK and beyond.

He selected some of the most notable architects in the world to design the buildings, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and Benedetta Tagliabue.

Meridith Moore says the experience those living with cancer and their loved ones have at the centres begins as soon as they enter.

"They put a lot of effort into the welcome that you receive when you come into a centre and that's both architecturally in the way that the entrance is designed to be generous, to be approachable, but also in the way the staff come and help you and approach you in a calm and supportive way" she explains.

"People describe walking into a Maggie's centre like they're having a hug, they're getting a hug, because it's warm, it's inviting.

"And so, if that's not evidence that a building can make you feel better, I don't know what is."

The centres offer a caring space away from the clinical environment of a hospital.

They are filled with natural light, comfortable furnishings, with views of nature and a "sense of home".

At the Maggie's Centre in Dundee a group of people living with cancer speak about how important it is to have this space to spend time in.

"There's a sense of calm. You feel grounded," says Kate Johnson as she tries to explain the impact the building itself has on her.

Lesley Barnes thinks it might be something to do with the light as well.

"It doesn't matter if it's raining outside, the building is still bright. There's lots of windows," she says.

Her son David Barnes, who is sitting opposite her, adds: "It just makes me feel calm.

"And coming in, it's just all the things on my shoulders. It just goes really calm and I just love it here so much."

Centre manager Karen MacKinnon sees cancer turning people's lives upside down every day.

"It's a really challenging time and I think this building is absolutely beautiful," she says.

"It is a calming space and it really supports people."

Thirty years on from the first one opening in Edinburgh, there are now 27 centres across the UK and four overseas.

Each centre is unique but they have one thing in common - they are all designed to care.

The exhibition opens on Friday 6 March at the V&A Dundee.