The belief that architecture plays a role in enhancing people’s physical and emotional wellbeing is now widely recognised. In the field of healthcare, the Maggie’s Centre has attracted attention since 1996 for its ability to increase psychological flexibility and engender therapeutic effects in people with cancer and their caregivers. Its unconventional architecture based on a concise and emotional architectural brief in synergy with its psychosocial support programme is what lies behind its success. With historical reference to the ancient Greek tradition of the therapeutic architecture of healing temples and to the model of organisation of the medieval Benedictine monastery, this research investigates what has a positive impact on users in the Maggie’s Centre. Within the academic world, this topic has so far only been investigated by scholars mainly in the social sciences; the results should encourage further architectural research to study and reconsider architecture as a form of care. Starting from an investigation into the design of the twenty-six built centres, focused on the ‘place’ and continuing with a phenomenological ethnography within three of the centres, centred on ‘people’, the two-step methodological process adopted reveals a distinct narrative of the consecutive yet separate stages. By thematically analysing the dynamic, hybrid, and contradictory aspects of the physical space combined with the psychological programme offered by Maggie’s, this study extrapolates the key elements that identify the Maggie’s Centre as a therapeutic environment of which flexibility gives its universal definition. Furthermore, by discovering the experiential spatiality essential to finding ways to tolerate traumatic transitions and promoting the role of users in the process underlying Maggie’s ‘Commissioning of Architecture’, this research highlights the paradigmatic qualities of Maggie’s model that can be applied to other health and non-health facilities. If the principles drawn from the Maggie’s Centre to enable well-being and flexibility work in such realities, they should also be effective when applied to architecture in general.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/0ejy-7815
Frisone, Caterina
Supervisors: Brun, Cathrine ; Placidi, Andrea
School of Architecture
Year: 2021
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