Maggie's Southampton wins RIBA South Award

Our Maggie's Southampton project saw a hospital car park next to the Oncology unit at Southampton General Hospital transformed into a peaceful sanctuary gracefully surrounded by a miniature New Forest.

Judged and presented locally, RIBA Regional Awards celebrate great architecture across the UK.

For 50 years the RIBA Awards have championed and celebrated the best architecture in the UK and around the world.

Successful projects reflect changes and innovations in architecture, but at their core display a commitment to designing and developing buildings and spaces for the improvement and enhancement of people’s lives.

RIBA said: “Built using structural glazed ceramic blocks and ethereal mirrors, its materials betray a fragile robustness which emulates the spirit of the Maggie’s Centre. The plan is archetypal, with four walls radiating to create four distinct spaces, each with their own aspect and relationship to the landscape beyond."

At the centre of this architectural compass, a kitchen and table, set beneath a plunging rooflight, provide a point of communion. From here, you can easily navigate to a soft variety of spaces, from intimate rooms to generous salons. The whole centre acts as a public living room that allows people to privately process the trauma of living with cancer.

RIBA

The Centre for the South at Southampton has been designed to be a ‘home from home’, reflecting and responding to the needs of its local community. The design is subtle, understated and imbued with light, to lift the weight from the shoulders of all who visit and work there. 

Maggie’s Southampton features bespoke ceramics, manufactured by Ceràmica Cumella. This inspired blockwork captures the changing light, offering an ethereal reflection of the New Forest landscape. The team were proactive in procuring samples of the ceramics, and constructed a sample panel of the completed product, including the top coping units. This enabled the team to highlight various issues early on, ensuring there were no detrimental impacts on the construction programme.