Enabling Maggie’s to support cancer care at The Royal Marsden

Designing with comfort and connection in mind

Visually distinctive on purpose to create a home from home feel in contrast to the clinical purpose of the rest of the site, the development is designed to feel nothing like a hospital.

This supports Maggie’s ethos that great design and architecture can help the people who visit the centres feel better and help their expert staff to give the best possible cancer support.

Private rooms for counselling and therapy have skylights to allow natural light in while giving the users privacy. Instead of institutional-style corridors, rooms fan out from a central, double-height kitchen space. A range of comfortable, private spaces for quiet reflection nestle just off this welcoming communal area, with a long dining table at its centre encouraging people to come together for connection and support.

Tactile materials like Douglas Fir, Birch ply and Harris Tweed, along with soft furnishings, art, and books create a relaxed, domestic environment and the balcony above maximises views and fosters a sense of community. Nothing is fixed or defined, the space and its finishes encouraging visitors to take time to drift, daydream and explore.

The dynamic garden inspires, changing dramatically with the seasons. The woodland garden includes native trees and hedges for privacy, creating a calm and contemplative atmosphere. Paths have been designed for ambling, restorative walks.

To achieve these extraordinary designs at a high quality within budget, our Sir Robert McAlpine project team provided buildability and financial advice well in advance. Our teams start by scrutinising the plans in minute detail. Transforming vision into reality, we stay true to the architect’s vision while keeping construction lean, efficient and collaborative.

Looking after the patients

During the build process, not disrupting the hospital’s day-to-day operations was a must. With exemplary communication and a friend face turned toward the public, we made sure our construction work went almost unnoticed.

It was particularly important for us to make sure that our construction traffic didn’t impede on access to the site for staff, visitors, deliveries, and emergency vehicles. We worked closely with subcontractors during the tendering process to plan out logistics and make sure they knew how important it was to keep disruption to a minimum.