Article published on SALUS website: The Therapeutic Power of the Maggie’s Centre
A new book exploring the therapeutic environment of Maggie’s cancer centres and the relationship between architecture and neuroscience has been published.
Authored by Caterina Frisone, the book, titled The Therapeutic Power of the Maggie’s Centre: Experience, Design and Wellbeing, Where Architecture meets Neuroscience, shows how through an unconventional architecture, as required by the design brief, combined with the health charity’s psychological support programme, the Maggie’s health model enables cancer patients and visitors to be exposed to powerful therapeutic effects.
After tracing the history of Maggie’s center, the book focuses on Maggie’s Therapeutikos (the mind is as important as the body), the architectural brief, and the “client-architect-users” triad. Although comfort and atmosphere are crucial, they are not enough to define the therapeutic environment of Maggie’s center, says the author. What generates well-being in a Maggie’s center can be found by looking at neuroscience-providing scientific explanations of empathy, feelings and emotions and considering a space that envelops people in an embodied experience.
