MAGGIE’S CENTRE GETS FLORAL TREATMENT

London-based firm AL_A has applied for planning permission to build the drop-in centre for cancer patients and their relatives alongside the oncology unit at Southampton General Hospital.

Scheduled to open in 2017, the building will feature an understated form and daylight-filled spaces, intended to create an "ethereal clarity".

"I wanted to create a place that is warm, welcoming and full of light, one that dissolves the boundaries between building and garden," explained Levete.

The Southampton Maggie's Centre will be set amongst a garden that references the wild landscape of the New Forest – a nearby national park comprising vast expanses of wood and heathland.

This will be created by landscape architect Sarah Price, whose portfolio includes the 2012 Gardens at London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Inside, the building will offer psychological support, benefits advice, nutrition workshops, relaxation and stress management, art therapy, tai chi and yoga.

The Maggie's cancer charity was founded by the late Maggie Keswick Jencks and her husband, architecture theorist Charles Jencks, to offer support to anyone affected by cancer.

"The new Maggie's Centre will provide cancer support of the highest quality, which will complement the excellent clinical care that the hospital already provides," says Fiona Dalton, Chief Executive of the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, which is partnering with Maggie's on the project.