Notes to editors

1. For further information and images contact Mina Vadon in the RIBA Press Office on 07805 173681 or 020 7307 3761; mina.vadon@inst.riba.org 
2. Images of the winning building and shortlisted entries can be downloaded from the FTP site:
   
   

   Username: pressimages

   Password: press#i2009

    

   The full building credits are:

   Maggie's Centre, London

   Charing CrossHospital, Fulham Palace Road, London W6

    

   Architect:  Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

   Client:  Maggie's (Laura Lee)

   Structural Engineer:  Arup

   Services Engineer:  Arup

   Cost Consultant:  Turner & Townsend

   Access Consultant: Vin Goodwin

   Landscape Architect:      Dan Pearson Studio 

   Lighting Consultant:   Speirs and Major

   Contractor:  ROK

   Contract Value:  £2.1m

   Date of completion:  April 2008

   Gross internal area:  370 sq m
   

3. The latest in a line of Maggie’s Centres designed by distinguished architects is the one that stands on a hectic corner on the Fulham Palace Road in Hammersmith.  A deep orange rendered wall puts a protective arm around it, making it a place apart without denying it is a part of the city.  This antithesis of a hospital provides an open house in the city.  There is no signage, everything is intuitive; there are no hinged doors except on the entrance and the toilets.  Like any traditional home, life is centred around the hearth – here a wood-burning stove – and the kitchen.  A big table and a kettle welcome users, inviting people disturbed by news of cancer in themselves or loved ones, to come in, to make themselves at home.  There are plenty of quiet corners they can retreat into but mainly they congregate around this table, carrying on quiet conversations, gently getting their lives back. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners' quietly confident building has created a completely informal, home-like sanctuary to help patients learn to live with cancer.
4. All good buildings need good clients.  As a cancer-care nurse Laura Lee (the client) promised her patient Maggie Jencks that she would carry out her dying wish: to see cancer sufferers and their families and friends offered humane facilities in which they could learn about the illness and receive support.  In just 12 years from Richard Murphy's first centre in Edinburgh, six centres by the world’s leading architects including Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid, are now open, with eight more planned or under construction.  For the latest, and the first in London, Charles Jencks turned to his old friend Richard Rogers, whose practice is just around the corner.
5. The architects, led by Ivan Harbour, considered placing the entrance on the street corner, but that would have meant turning its back on the hospital, a dominant though elegant tower by Dome of Discovery architect Ralph Tubs, spoilt by a crude later podium.  It would also have denied the centre an approach, which is done beautifully thanks to landscaping by Dan Pearson.  Conceived as a two-storey pavilion, the centre’s positive spirit is signalled with a bold roof canopy that hovers high above the walls to sail protectively over a series of intimate internal gardens, courtyards and roof terraces – also by Pearson.  One large opening in the façade provides a glimpse of a courtyard garden and the table beyond; it immediately speaks of simple human pleasures, it invites us in.   Passing along the garden wall to the Centre’s entrance you notice a window seat, where you can stop, sit and contemplate, then take a deep breath and make the decision either to go in or to turn back. How many buildings provide their visitors such the simple luxury of time?
6. The building’s domestic heart is washed in light and framed by cast in-situ concrete columns. The concrete contractor is, literally, an artist and it shows.  Also supporting the first floor and roof, the column arrangement is based on a four metre grid that provides an ideal proportion for the consultation, treatment rooms, living spaces and garden courtyards that all open off the kitchen.  Privacy can be created by sliding screens, translucent glass panels, or bookshelves. These are all built in a light timber as is the furniture.  The client wanted IKEA; the architects persuaded them to go for something closer to Aalto.  And there is a Scandinavian air of well-being to the centre: this could be a private house in a Finnish forest instead of a health building on the Fulham Palace Road.
7. The first floor is given over mainly to administration, but it is informally arranged: staff work mainly at tables in corners and users are free, even encouraged by the presence of a library to come up here. Balustrades at this level have been detailed as bookshelves and display surfaces, another example of the architect making every element of the building work in a multiplicity of modes, both beautiful and functional.   This series of mezzanines, open to the floor below, feels like a tree house with views out on all four sides.  A suntrap roof terrace protected by the oversailing roof, frames interesting view of the hospital tower. 
8. This Maggie’s Centre demonstrates architecture’s power to shape our experience and has led to a fitting memorial to Maggie Keswick Jencks. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has produced a timeless work of architecture that not only distils the intentions of this brief but expresses in built form compassion, sensitivity and a deep sense of our common humanity.
9. The RIBA Stirling Prize is a ‘built or designed in Britain’ prize, for which only buildings in the UK by RIBA chartered members and International Fellows, or buildings in the rest of the EU by practices whose principal office is in the UK, are eligible. The £20,000 Prize is fully-funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation. The Marco Goldschmied Foundation promotes research into sustainable architecture and supports environmental and human rights issues and educational initiatives. 
10. Crystal CG is a media company that specialises in high-quality 3D animation and design. Established in 1995, Crystal CG helps its clients achieve their goals by applying 3D visualisation technology to produce creative solutions. Based on its advanced software and committed workforce, Crystal CG has now evolved into a broad-based media company and expanded into areas like digital entertainment, history, culture and education. www.crystalcg.com
11. The Architects' Journal is the voice of architecture in Britain. This weekly magazine sits at the heart of the debate about British architecture and British cities, forming opinions across the whole construction industry on design-related matters.  www.architectsjournal.co.uk
12. Autodesk, Ibstock, NBS and SIV Human Resources are associate sponsors of the Stirling Prize.  For more information please visit www.autodesk.co.uk, www.ibstock.com, www.thenbs.com and www.siv.co.uk.
13. The RIBA Trust manages the cultural assets of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), including the internationally recognised collections of the British Architectural Library. It is the UK’s national architecture centre, delivering the RIBA Awards and RIBA Stirling Prize (broadcast on Channel 4); the Royal Gold Medal; International and Honorary Fellowships; RIBA partnership in architecture festivals; a full programme of lectures, exhibitions, tours and other events; and an education programme.
14. 2009 marks the 175th anniversary of the founding of the RIBA. To celebrate this milestone the Institute is holding a programme of special events throughout the year that aim to show the breadth of our activities throughout the world of architecture, and engage an even wider public and celebrate the benefits to society of good design. For further information visit www.architecture.com