Meet the team behind Maggie’s

In 2012, Heatherwick Studio was appointed by Maggie’s to design the 23rd cancer support centre in the grounds of St James’s University Hospital, Leeds.

The team at Heatherwick has been led by Thomas Heatherwick, with the project itself fronted by Mat Cash and Rebeca Ramos. From the start, Thomas based his design around the stories of how people experience Maggie’s Centres. Not just considering what is felt by visitors, but also how they utilise the buildings and respond to the spaces.

The effect of this has been a design led by the senses, from what visitors will see and touch, to the warmth of the building itself. The site itself was also an important factor. Described as the ‘grassy knoll’ by Dr Linda Pollard, Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the team at Heatherwick wanted to increase the greenery of the site instead of adding a centre that would take that element away. 10,302 plants from 19 species will be the final addition to the centre, with work from landscape design studio Balston Agius starting this month.

Rebeca has led this project since her joining the studio in 2015. It was a cause close to her heart as her father developed cancer twice. She said: “I wanted to participate in projects that really made a positive difference and a positive impact on people’s lives. I believe that architecture can do that.”

For the team at Heatherwick Studio, the Maggie’s Yorkshire project has been an opportunity to exercise all the principles that they believe in; creating something that is sculptural and beautiful yet spatially rich and kind.

It’s not too late to Buy a Brick. Head over to www.maggiesyorkshirebuyabrick.com to be part of the legacy.