Maggie’s cancer care centre
25th April 2017

Architectural glazing systems from KAWNEER were used on the 19th and largest Maggie’s cancer care centre in the UK.

Two types of Kawneer curtain walling were used on the centre at The Christie Hospital in South Manchester: AA100 SSG (Structurally Silicone Glazed) for the triangular rooflights, with concealed actuators, and AA100 mullion-drained as vertical glazing.

These were complemented in aluminium by AA720 doors with bonded units to give a frameless appearance and AA3572 lift/slide doors.

The heavily glazed design of the Manchester centre by Foster + Partners aims to establish a domestic atmosphere in a garden setting. The building occupies a sunny site and is arranged over 1.5 storeys, keeping its profile low in keeping with the surrounding residential streets. The bronze-clad roof rises in the centre to create a mezzanine level, naturally illuminated by the triangular rooflights.

This is supported by lightweight timber lattice beams which also act alongside glazing as natural partitions between different internal areas, visually dissolving the architecture into the surrounding gardens.

The sliding glass doors open the timber-clad building up to a garden setting created by the award-winning Dan Pearson Studio. Each treatment and counselling room on the eastern façade faces its own private garden.

Bennett Architectural Aluminium installed the Kawneer systems for main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine.

The centre was officially opened in April 2016 by the Duchess of Cornwall, almost two years after work started on the 1,922m2 site of a former car park that replaced low-rise ancillary buildings. Since then it has won several awards including Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce’s Building of the Year and two 2016 Wood awards - Structural and the “winner of winners” Arnold Laver Gold Award.