About the building

The Architect

Kisho Kurokawa was one of the greatest Japanese architects of the 20th Century. He was a personal friend of our founder Maggie Keswick Jencks and has created a design which will both inspire and comfort people.

Sadly, Kisho died in October 2007, but fortunately designs had been completed shortly beforehand and Maggie’s and his practice, Kisho Kurokawa Associates, are committed to working together to complete the project. Thore Garbers and Wendy James of Garbers & James have now delivered the project as executive architects.

“The new Maggie’s Centre will come out of the earth and swing around with two arms like a rotating galaxy. One side will welcome the visitor and lead to the other side, which embraces nature, the trees, rocks and water. A place set apart, as she said of a garden. The connection to the cosmos and contacts between East and West – two motives that Maggie and I shared – are in the design. I hope she would have liked it.”

Kisho Kurokawa of Kisho Kurokawa Architects and Associates

Design

Dr Kisho Kurokawa based his design on the concept of the cosmic whirlpool, representing a strong symbol of life, with everlasting forces swirling around a still centre.

This can readily be seen in the building form, where users are welcomed into calm central elliptical drum that leads into more focused and energetically programmed wings.

The centre has a glorious site and gardens, which overlook Swansea Bay. The whole composition is in an elevated position, next to woodland, on the Singleton Hospital site.