The latest Maggie’s Center is located at Southampton General Hospital. The Maggie’s Centre Southampton was built by Amanda Levete Architects AL_A, who set their building in an artificial forest clearing.

The latest Maggie’s Center is located at Southampton General Hospital. The Maggie’s Centre Southampton was built by Amanda Levete Architects AL_A, who set their building in an artificial forest clearing.

Maggie’s Centers have been providing support and information to cancer patients across the UK for 25 years. The new Maggie’s Centre at Southampton Hospital has transformed a former parking lot into an oncology hub serving a region of around 3.2 million people.

Maggie’s Centre Southampton appears to be located in a forest clearing, although it stands on the suburban grounds of Southampton General Hospital. The garden takes up almost two thirds of the site. The design team at AL_A imagined, says Amanda Levete, that a piece of nature had been transported here from the New Forest. The aim is to bring a little serenity and magic to the middle of the former hospital parking lot.

The new Maggie’s Centre Southampton virtually grows out of the garden. Four large wall panels rotate around a central living hall. As in all Maggie’s Centers, the kitchen table is at the heart of the building. A skylight brings in daylight and opens up a view of the sky. The wall panels, on the other hand, separate quieter, more private areas from the living hall. Room-high, glass sliding doors blur the boundaries between inside and outside. Four small pavilions emerge from the corners of the building. They house rooms that are closed off from the hall. Examination, consultation and relaxation rooms are located here.

The skeleton of Maggie’s Centre Southampton is formed by the four ceramic wall panels. They protrude from the interior of the building out into the garden. The earth-colored clay of the ceramic visually roots the building in the ground. The four pavilions, on the other hand, are clad in milled stainless steel, which reflects the surrounding garden landscape with exciting optical refractions. As a result, the structures seem to literally dissolve.

The garden at Maggie’s Centre Southampton was designed by award-winning landscape architect Sarah Price. Among other things, she helped design the gardens in London’s Olympic Park in 2012. In her opinion, there is no doubt that a view of nature has a positive influence on people’s well-being. The Maggie’s Centre garden is inspired by the flora of the New Forest: Wood anemones, orchids, wild garlic, lesser celandine, bluebells and primroses, mosses and ferns grow along the paths.

Also interesting: Amanda Levete Architects have added a new courtyard to the traditional Wadham College in Oxford. Find out more here.

Roofs have always been a special challenge for their Baumeisters. The M:AI shows the most important milestones in this development under the title “The Fifth View”.

Roofs have always been a special challenge for their Baumeister. To mark the 20th anniversary of the NRW Chamber of Engineers, the M:AI is showing the most important milestones in this development at the Hans-Sachs-Haus in Gelsenkirchen. Based on around 40 projects, visitors to the exhibition “The Fifth View” will learn how experience, intuition, but above all inventiveness and sometimes courage, enabled the builders – not always architects or engineers by profession – to make significant progress.

The dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore in Florence is a milestone in the world of construction. It is thanks to Brunelleschi’s persistent efforts that his bold design for the enormous double-shell dome was realized. Without falsework, as was usually the case. He also designed construction machinery that made it much easier to use on the building site.

Another example is the Crystal Palace in London, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, which many people may not know: Joseph Paxton was a gardener. The innovative aspect here was the use of prefabricated building elements. This new, time-saving process was the only way the project could be completed on time for the opening date. Another significant event was the use of the new building material reinforced concrete for the Century Hall in Wroclaw. It is known that the workers, full of skepticism about the new building material, refused to loosen the formwork. Max Berg, the Baumeister at the time, offered a passer-by a gold coin if he would help him with the first formwork. With success – the passer-by accepted the gold coin and the construction held.

But buildings such as the highway church in Siegerland, the large umbrellas for the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia or the Olympic Stadium in Munich with its unmistakable transparent roof landscape are also represented. The latter building project was presented to the jury at the time as a simple model: made from women’s stockings, toothpicks and thumbtacks. Visitors not only learn about the most important developments in the history of construction, but also one or two amusing stories.

Photos: Claudia Dreysse