Background information:
Charles Jencks and his late wife Maggie, who died of breast cancer, created a blueprint for cancer care centers, that are mushrooming worldwide with 17 existing, 5 being built, and 6 in the planning stages. Five were designed by star architects including Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, and Zaha Hadid. In 2013, Maggie’s received 125,000 visits and supported over 25,000 people newly affected by cancer.
At the opening of the exhibiton of "Maggie's Centres: A Blueprint of Cancer Care" and lecture "Can Architecture Affect Your Health", Charles will not claim that architecture could replace chemotherapy, but he will argue that hospital spaces are a form of an "architectural aversion therapy" with their hard, sterile surfaces, bright, white spaces, long,neon-lit corridors, toothpaste-colored cladding that are alienating. Maggie's Centres were designed with the patient's needs in mind; and at Maggie's we see a correlation between patients outcomes and design, which can be the placebo affect of architecture on health.
On entering a Maggie's Centres they are the opposite of the standard-issue hospital environment as they are domestic in scale (3000 sq feet) and feeling; living spaces centred around a kitchen table (one will be on display at the Exhibtion); no reception desk; staff without uniforms; and views and easy access to nature and the outdoors. Maggie realised there was a need for places not just for medical treatment, but also to share fears and hopes with others, to receive comfort, company and advice, to reflect and pass time. That cancer sufferers need help with anything from getting wigs to raising loans, and the Maggie's Centres can provide the formal and informal networks for such support for the patients and their loved ones.
The exhibition and lecture will illustrate that architecture cannot cure cancer but the benefits of light, air, nature, the rejection of an institutional feel, a calm, welcoming, and warm atmosphere with good design can do more for public health than the medical profession could. People can feel like people again, rather than patients. That architecture can have a placebo affect on treatment and recovery because uplifting environments benefit both body and soul in some indirect way, through feedback in the immune system, or in the willpower of the patient to take a more strenuous exercise in their own therapy,
Michelle Obama saw the power of the idea and visited the London Maggie's Center in 2010.
We would like to invite you to the Opening. Please RSVP to me.
Sincerely,
Lorna Chiu
Media Consultant
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MEDIA ALERT
MULTI-MEDIA EXHIBITION - Maggie’s Centres: A Blueprint for Cancer Care
WHAT: Maggie’s Centres: A Blueprint for Cancer Care
Five cancer-care centers designed by luminary architects: Maggie’s Dundee - Frank Gehry | Maggie’s Gartnavel - Rem Koolhaas | Maggie’s Nottingham - Piers Gough with Interiors Paul Smith | Maggie’s West London - designed by Sir Richard Rogers | Maggie’s Barts - Steven Holl (not yet realized)
The exhibition will include:
· Architectural models
· Original drawings/sketches by Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas and Steven Holl
· Portrait photographs by Mary McCartney (Paul McCartney’s daughter)
· Videos - patient stories
· Videos – the design process of designing Maggie’s Gartnavel and Maggie’s Barts
· Furniture provided by Vitra to recreate the experience of a Maggie’s
Hosted by New York School of Interior Design<mailto:http://www.nysid.edu/news-events/exhibitions/maggies-centres-a-blueprint-for-cancer-care>
WHEN: March 07 to April 25, 2014 | Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11am – 6pm
WHERE: NYSID Gallery, 161 East 69th Street, NY
COST: Free Admission, Open to the Public, Wheelchair Access
People should not “lose the joy of living in the fear of dying,” said cancer patient Maggie Keswick Jencks and namesake of Maggie’s Centres<http://www.maggiescentres.org/>, cancer-care places that are part-hospital, part-home, part-church and part-museum. Maggie believed that there is a connection between an environment, feeling good, and good health. The Exhibition emphasizes how architecture, interiors, and landscape design work together to create an environment of help and healing.
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Maggie's Centre by Frank Gehry
Contact: Lorna Chiu, +1.310.200.8388, [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Photos of Maggie's Centres Portrait Patient Photo and their Objects of Love by Mary McCartney: http://maggiesatnysid.smugmug.com/
www.maggiescentres.org<http://www.maggiescentres.org/>
RELATED LECTURES:
Charles Jencks: Can Architecture Affect Your Health?<http://www.nysid.edu/news-events/events/public-programs/charles-jencks>
Thursday, March 6, 6pm
- Followed by the opening reception for the exhibition Charles Jencks—an architectural theorist, landscape architect, designer, and co-founder of Maggie’s Centres, discusses the connection between an environment, feeling good, and good health.
<http://www.nysid.edu/news-events/events/public-programs/michael-graves>Michael Graves: A Case for Humanistic Solutions in Healthcare Design<http://www.nysid.edu/news-events/events/public-programs/michael-graves>
Wednesday, March 26, 6:30pm
Michael Graves will speak about the foundation of his design philosophy and how a personal healthcare tragedy focused his attention on improving healthcare experiences by design.
<http://www.nysid.edu/news-events/events/public-programs/contemporary-art-in-healthcare-environments>Contemporary Art in Healthcare Environments<http://www.nysid.edu/news-events/events/public-programs/contemporary-art-in-healthcare-environments>
Wednesday, April 23, 6:30pm
Jennifer Finkel, curator of the Cleveland Clinic Art Program, and Diane Brown, founder and president of RxArt, will discuss their work to integrate contemporary into healthcare environments and the affect it has on patients and their families.
About New York School of Interior Design Founded in 1916, NYSID is a private, not-for-profit college devoted exclusively to interior design education and related disciplines. NYSID’s guiding principle is that the interior environment is a fundamental element of human welfare and the College is committed to actively improving the quality of life for all segments of humanity. NYSID offers certificate, undergraduate, and graduate programs in the field of interior design, design history and theory, sustainable design, interior lighting design, and healthcare interior design.
In 2011, a Master of Professional Studies program in Healthcare Interior Design was established to ensure that the next generation of designers is equipped with the skills they need to design healing and restorative environments.
Lorna Chiu
Media Strategist Consultant
New York School of Interior Design Exhibition: Maggie's Centres: A Blueprint For Cancer Care
Opening March 7 until April 25, 2014
+1 310-200-8388
http://bit.ly/NYSIDExhibit
@NYSID\
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