Maggie's Centre, Swansea

A large round central space with a giant oculus and view of the garden, that contains the kitchen, is the social heart to the building. From this space two tapering, curling wings extend, that with the associated external terraces, provide more personal spaces.

Concealed pocket doors allow the rooms in the wings to be cut off from the main space and turned into studios. Benches line these two sitting rooms, and as the spaces taper, they permit a range of activities and intimacies

On the façade titanium plates were inseted into the precast concrete panels, to catch the light, allowing the building to sparkle. To prevent the titanium pattern from repeating the architect installed some panels the right way up, others upside-down, to have an apparently random facade.

The top of the facade curves out to salute the zinc roof’s eaves. The curving zinc roof structure has a central steel spine, like a fish’s backbone, with timber ribs.