Authored by Caterina Frisone, the book, titled The Therapeutic Power of the Maggie’s Centre: Experience, Design and Wellbeing, Where Architecture meets Neuroscience, shows how through an unconventional architecture, as required by the design brief, combined with the health charity’s psychological support programme, the Maggie’s health model enables cancer patients and visitors to be exposed to powerful therapeutic effects.

After tracing the story of the Maggie’s centre, the book focuses on Maggie’s Therapeutikos (the mind as important as the body); the architectural brief; and the ‘client-architect-users’ triad. Although comfort and atmospheres are paramount, they are not enough to define the therapeutic environment of the Maggie’s centre, says the author. What generates wellbeing in a Maggie’s centre can be found by looking to neuroscience – by providing scientific explanations of empathy, feelings and emotions and considering space that envelops people in an embodied experience. 

The book concludes by critically evaluating the Maggie’s centre as a model to be applied to other healthcare facilities and to architecture in general. It can be considered essential reading for any student or professional working on therapeutic environments.

Commenting on the book, Dame Laura Lee, Maggie’s chief executive, said: “The role of emotions and feelings for a person left alone in that limbo that follows a cancer diagnosis is why Maggie Keswick Jencks started her pilot project for a centre with a human element at its core which, since 1996, has continued to grow to help more and more people with cancer. Explaining our philosophy with strength and passion, this book promotes Maggie’s values that hopefully go beyond healthcare and reach a wider architectural audience.”

Caterina Frisone earned her PhD and was associate lecturer in interior architecture at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She is now the scientific director of the Postgraduate programme ‘Master in Architecture and Health’ at the University Iuav of Venice.

A book launch event takes place on 13 November at AA Bookshop, 33 Bedford Square, London from 18.00 to 20.00. Guest speakers include Dame Laura Lee, Maggie’s chief executive; Ivan Harbor (RSHP) architect of Maggie’s West London; Lesley Howells, Maggie’s lead psychologist and consultant clinical psychologist; Piers Gough (CZWG), architect of Maggie’s Nottingham; and Professor Cathrine Brun, Oxford Brookes University.

Prices for the book are as follows: paperback (£36.99); hardback (£135); and eBook (£33.29). To purchase, click here.