Oldham Maggie’s Center Known for feats like giving birth to the first successful “in vitro” fertilized test tube baby, Louis Brown, the Royal Oldham Hospital, located near Oldham Town Center, around eight miles from East Manchester City, has yet another achievement to add to its repertoire.
© Alex de Rijke
It is about to get a new addition in the form of a special support center for cancer patients. Maggie’s, an organization renowned for its Cancer care charity work, has secured the permission to build this support center, its second project in Greater Manchester. Maggie’s Center is to be “a house full of surprises,” the architects of the commissioned dRMM firm, explained while throwing some light onto the details of the subject.
© Alex de Rijke
The building is supported on slender columns which provide an elegantly sophisticated aura to the place. Enhancing the atmosphere is a sloped garden which gives way to airy rooms very picturesquely framed by Palm and Birch trees, infusing the air with lovely fragrances and a fresh feeling. There is also a rainwater pool, discovered underneath the building, which reflects the whole arrangement providing a symmetrically pleasing visual.
© Jasmin Sohi
Natural, is what the building is, for there are trees in and all around it. The structure grows into trees, maximizing the concept of the whole design, that of it being more about the content than the form. Any visitor who enters the premises, gets unexpected surprises on the way, first a timber construction filled with daylight and natural air, a reflective pool ahead and then to the sloped garden of delights. The whole project uses timber and glass as the principle materials.
© Jasmin Sohi
The spaces have been masterfully designed according to the needs of privacy as well as collective meetings. A central light-well lightens the atmosphere inside with thick walls to define the boundary of spaces inside. The walls have been artfully carved into niches and meeting places.
© Alex de Rijke
“The centre will create a calm and uplifting environment for everyone that visits the centre,” says Maggie’s Chief Executive Laura Lee of the whole place which is about to make its debut in 2016. “This building will offer patients, carers and staff something entirely different to any of our existing facilities, It is designed around the needs of people rather than the technical function of our clinical facilities,” Dr. Roger Prudham, the deputy medical director for Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust exclaims. To say the least, this appears to be an excellent facility for Cancer patients to support and be supportive, to grow and to help others grow, a truly calming experience and a veritable house of surprises, as was always the intention.
© Alex de Rijke
Project Info:
Architects: dRMM
Location: Oldham, United Kingdom
Area: 260 m²
Year: 2017
Photographs: Alex de Rijke, Tony Barwel, Jasmin Sohi, Jon Cardwell
Manufacturers: Allgood, Aresi, Coexistence, IPIG, Mowat & Co
Building Services Engineer: Atelier Ten
Structural Engineer: Booth King Partnership
Landscape Design: dRMM, Rupert Muldoon
Main Contractor: F Parkinson
Landscape Subcontractor: Hultons
Structural Timber Subcontractor: Zublin Timber
Funding: Stoller Charitable Trust
Timber Advice: AHEC
Cost Consultant: Robert Lombardelli Partnership
Tulipwood Supplier: Middle Tenessee Lumber
Machining Of Cladding: Morgan Timber
Internal Joinery: Uncommon Projects
Artist (Curtain): Inside Outside
Film: AHEC
Client: Maggie’s
By: Antara Jha
Antara Jha is a passionate architect and writer, blending design expertise with a keen editorial eye. As a former Assistant Editor at Arch2O, she explored global architecture through storytelling and analysis. Now at Studio Sattva, she continues to bridge design and narrative, highlighting meaningful spaces and cultural context.