Maggie's Architecture The Deep Affinities Between Architecture and Health

The event that sparked off the UK programme of Maggie's Centres for cancer care was one woman's diagnosis with terminal cancer. That woman was Maggie Keswick Jencks. With her husband, the American cultural theorist, landscape architect and architectural historian Charles Jencks, she set about co-founding the pioneering project that has seen an array of high-profile international architects design acclaimed buildings where patients can face their diagnoses and undergo treatment in the most comforting and uplifting of environments. Here, Charles Jencks gives his account of the story so far and explains what it is that makes these centres so special.