The building is funded by grant making charity Walk the Walk from some of the money raised at The MoonWalk Edinburgh, providing a much needed second Maggie’s Centre in Glasgow to serve the west of Scotland’s cancer population – an area with a high incidence of cancer. The centre acknowledges the support from the tens of thousands of women and men who have taken part in The MoonWalk Edinburgh, Power Walking a half or full marathon in brightly decorated bras over the past six years, through an engraving on the front door.

The centre is designed by OMA Partners Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon. OMA is one of the most influential architectural practices working today, whose most celebrated buildings include the Seattle Central Library and the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin. Maggie’s Gartnavel will be OMA’s first permanent building to open in the UK, followed closely by a new headquarters for NM Rothschild and Sons in London.

Maggie’s Gartnavel is a single-level building in the form of a ring of interlocking rooms surrounding an internal landscaped courtyard, which overlooks the hospital site and city from its position atop a hill on the Gartnavel Hospital site.

The centre is located a stone’s throw from the Scotland’s leading oncology facility, the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, which serves a population of 2.8 million people (60 per cent of Scotland’s population).

Maggie’s Gartnavel will work in tandem with the original Maggie’s Glasgow at the Western Infirmary (opened in 2002), to provide a first class level of evidence based emotional support and practical advice to people with cancer, their friends and family. People at any stage of their cancer journey will be able to access the professional and peer led support available at Maggie’s, to help them to build a life with, through and beyond cancer.

Maggie’s place great emphasis on the designs of their centres to help facilitate the work they do. Seemingly haphazardly arranged, Maggie’s Gartnavel is actually a carefully considered composition of spaces responding to the needs of a Maggie's Centre. As opposed to a series of isolated rooms, the building is designed as a sequence of interconnected L-shaped figures in plan that create clearly distinguished areas – an arrangement that minimises the need for corridors and hallways and allows the rooms to flow one to another. The plan has been organised for the spaces to feel casual, almost carefree, allowing one to feel at ease and at home; part of an empathetic community of people. The centre has been constructed by local company, Dunne Group.

Complementing the centre’s design is a landscape design consisting of internal courtyard plantings and a surrounding wooded glades area, designed by Lily Jencks, daughter of Maggie’s Founders, Maggie Keswick Jencks and Charles Jencks, in conjunction with the landscape architecture and urban design company HarrisonStevens.

2011 is a landmark year for Maggie’s as the charity celebrates its 15th birthday, and its growth to 15 centres which are either open or in development. Maggie’s Gartnavel, Maggie’s Nottingham and Maggie’s South West Wales will all open before the end of the year, as part of a dramatic expansion to improve the landscape of cancer care and support across the UK. In the space of 15 years, Maggie’s has helped nearly half a million people to build a life with, through and beyond cancer and has been recognised as providing outstanding cancer care by the Department of Health.

The Architecture of Hope Exhibition to mark Maggie’s 15th anniversary year is currently on display at The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Architecture and Design, until November.

Laura Lee, Maggie’s Chief Executive, said: “It is an honour to open our eighth Maggie’s Centre. Today is a celebration of a fantastic new resource for the west of Scotland’s cancer population, as well as a celebration of this pivotal year in Maggie’s history. It’s hard to believe that it was fifteen years ago when we opened our very first centre in Edinburgh – delivering Maggie Keswick Jencks vision of providing an antidote to the isolation and despair of cancer. It soon became apparent that other regions and communities greatly needed a Maggie’s Centre too, and through wonderful support, we have managed to grow our network of centres and today take great pride in our newest centre – Maggie’s Gartnavel. OMA have created a truly unique environment, which will help to facilitate our programme of support, by making people feel safe, inspired and valued, whilst Lily Jencks garden design complements the centre beautifully. Most importantly, Maggie’s Gartnavel has been made possible through a unique partnership with Walk the Walk, whose tenacious Edinburgh MoonWalkers, take to the streets of Edinburgh each year in wonderfully decorate bras to raise money to support cancer charities. Thank you to Walk the Walk and to everyone who has graciously support us over the years – you are helping to make a huge difference.”

Nina Barough, Chief Executive and Founder of Walk the Walk Worldwide, said: “What a proud day it is for Walk the Walk! Over the past six years, our Scottish MoonWalkers have trained hard, devised fantastic fundraising schemes, designed outlandish bras, and then actually had the courage to go into the streets of the capital at Midnight wearing their creations as they take on their marathon challenge at The MoonWalk Edinburgh, all with a united vision of helping to support people facing cancer. Today that vision has become a reality as Walk the Walk has become the principle funder for this wonderful new Maggie’s Centre, which will offer cancer patients the care and support so needed when facing a cancer diagnosis. We have a very special relationship with Maggie’s and are pleased that in 2011, as we partner to open this new centre, Maggie’ s celebrate their 15th year and Walk the Walk are about to start a celebration of 15 years of MoonWalking!”

Ellen Van Loon, OMA Partner, said: “I enjoyed designing such an exceptional environment with this very dedicated and inspired team of designers and contractors. The sequence of spaces is an interplay of openness, retreat and support to underpin the Maggie’s programme.”

Lily Jencks, Landscape Designer, said: “Designing the centre has provided a strong connection to my mother and my hope is to have created a unique and joyful design in her memory. The landscape is a buffer surrounding the centre, providing a place apart, so that as people enter they feel a different pace and emotional connection to their surroundings. The garden actively embeds the building into the ground, cushioning and embracing the centre in a hill, showing the necessity of a supportive environment that is so central to Maggie’s philosophy.”

In 2011 Maggie’s will also open:

Maggie’s Nottingham – Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham
Opening: Wednesday, November 2
Architecture: Piers Gough CBE of CZWG
Interiors: Sir Paul Smith

Maggie’s South West Wales – Singleton Hospital, Swansea
Architecture: Kisho Kurokawa, ArBITAT Architects and Garbers & James Architects
Opening: Friday, December 9th
Landscape design: Kim Wilkie Associates and Terra Firma

…ENDS…
For Maggie’s Gartnavel contact Tricia Crosbie on 0141 225 0082 / 07769 145260 / tricia.crosbie@maggiescentres.org or visit www.maggiescentres.org
For more information on Walk the Walk and The MoonWalks, please contact Sally Orr 01483 741430 / 07796 080675 / sally@walkthewalk.org or visit www.walkthewalk.org

Notes to Editor:
Maggie’s Centres
• Maggie’s is celebrating its 15th birthday this year. Opening in Edinburgh in 1996 it now has 15 centres which are either established or in development. These are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Highlands, Fife, London, Cheltenham, Nottingham, South West Wales, Glasgow Gartnavel, Oxford, Lanarkshire, Aberdeen, North East and Online.
• One of Maggie’s primary aims is to make it as easy as possible for people living with cancer to access their local Centre. When the Beatson Oncology Centre announced that it was moving from the Western Infirmary to a new site at Gartnavel Hospital, it was natural for Maggie’s to investigate if there would be a site nearby. Maggie’s will monitor demand at the original Glasgow Centre at the Western Infirmary and will not close a well-used service.
• Maggie’s Centres are free to visit, no appointment is necessary and are for anyone affected by any type of cancer as well as their family and friends.
• Maggie’s Gartnavel is designed by OMA, who are working with the local based architects, Keppie to implement the design.
• Maggie’s president is HRH the Duchess of Cornwall

Walk the Walk
• Walk the Walk is the breast cancer charity that organises The MoonWalks in Edinburgh, Iceland and London.
• The MoonWalk Edinburgh 2012 will be held on 9th June @ Inverleith Park. Thousands and thousands of women and men will Power Walk through the streets of Edinburgh in brightly decorated bras at Midnight. Over 60,000 women and men have taken part in the 6 Edinburgh MoonWalks to date.
• Most of the money raised in Scotland stays in Scotland and to date The MoonWalk Edinburgh has raised over £13.6 million.
• HRH Prince Charles is the Official Patron of Walk the Walk Worldwide

Exhibitions
• The Architecture of Hope Exhibition debuted at the V&A in London earlier this year. It is currently displaying at The Lighthouse, showcasing beautifully crafted models of Maggie’s centres, architectural drawings and photographs, as well as specially commissioned films.
• The Barbican Art Gallery is hosting a major exhibition this Autumn, entitled OMA / Progress, to coincide with the opening of OMA’s first buildings in the UK, Maggie’s Gartnavel and the Rothschild Bank HQ in the City of London. Installed on the Barbican’s sculpture court, the exhibition includes a 1:1 footprint of OMA’s design for Maggie’s Gartnavel, allowing visitors the opportunity to walk over, through and around the plan to investigate and playfully imagine the building themselves.