Tranquil oasis!
New cancer care centre will be clothed in native plants
Aremarkable, new garden-led structure is being built in West Yorkshire to support cancer sufferers. The distinctive timber-framed building for the Maggie’s cancer care charity has been designed by London Garden Bridge architects Heatherwick Studio and is based around a series of interlocking, laminated, timber-finned vessels.
Located at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, the structure will provide users with a variety of bright, open spaces alongside private rooms used for counselling.
The rooftop gardens and surrounding landscape will be clothed with British native woodland species to marry in with the surrounding landscape, the raised structure of the centre giving the impression the planting is being elevated out of the ground.
“It’s a challenging site and very windy, so we need plants which are durable,” said Marie-Louise Agius, of landscape architectures and designers Balston Agius, who conceived the scheme. “On the roof plants will grow in 40cm of soil, so we’ve included hazel, hawthorn, dogwood and Viburnum opulus, underplanted with ferns, bluebells, ragged robin, wood anemones and primroses.”
Larger trees such as oaks, pines, birch and sorbus are being used to anchor the centre into the surrounding landscape. “We want users to see the changing seasons and enjoy the dynamics of the landscape,” added Marie-Louise. l The new centre is scheduled to open in early 2019.