Affective sanctuaries: understanding Maggie’s as therapeutic landscapes

Abstract

Since 1996, Maggie’s has led a new approach to cancer support that emphasises the empowering potential of the designed environment for its users. This paper draws on qualitative research from two separate projects undertaken with staff, visitors and volunteers at 10 Maggie’s Centres, exploring their experiences of Maggie’s environments, and their use of internal spaces and garden areas. Maggie’s has been most often noted for the buildings it commissions, but we argue that the gardens prompt a re-evaluation of the integrated healing environment. Locating our research in health geography debates, Maggie’s buildings and gardens are situated as contemporary examples of therapeutic landscapes. The Centres open up debates about the capacity of the designed environment to enhance the experience of well-being. This is achieved through the provision of communal areas within which visitors can find private places for emotional retreat, encouraging the experience of affective sanctuary.