Maggie’s Centre
with dRMM
Atelier Ten is privileged to have collaborated with dRMM Architects on the Maggie’s Centre at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Manchester. A sustainable design with a low carbon footprint was a key ambition for this Maggie’s Centre at the Royal Oldham Hospital. The light and airy building, constructed entirely from cross laminated timber for a minimal embodied carbon footprint, has a shallow floor plan and is designed to make the most of natural ventilation and natural light throughout the year, thus reducing the operational energy requirement of the Centre.
The building has very high levels of insulation to minimise the need for space heating and an underfloor heating system has been installed for comfort and to optimise the efficiency of the condensing boiler.
To keep patients, visitors and staff comfortable and to ensure excellent year-round air quality, trickle vents have been located at high level in the façade to provide fresh air while preventing cold draughts during winter operation.
During summer months, the façade panels can be opened up to allow greater air movement through the space.
Natural daylight is brought in through the perimeter glazing and the generous lightwell in the centre of the building. Around the perimeter, the roof overhangs protect the windows from high angle sun in the summer, keeping the space cool, while allowing the low angle winter sunlight into the building to reduce heating demand.
The philosophy for the lighting design is to be simple yet effective whilst complementing the exposed CLT structure, as well as providing a domestic atmosphere in keeping with the nature of the building use.
Warm colour temperature lighting fittings have been used to enhance the tulipwood finishes whilst also creating a homely feel.
The majority of the lighting has been designed to be concealed, while still providing comfortable illumination levels.
Concealed above the feature curved tulipwood wall, linear lensed LED is used to gentle graze the wall as well as provide meaningful ambient lighting to the main space. The distribution and colour of the light was carefully determined to best bring out the warmth and texture of the tulipwood.
The building sits within a beautiful landscaped garden which plays an important role in reinforcing the tranquillity and calming nature of the Maggie’s Centre. After dark, carefully conceived and concealed lighting gently washes the pathways to lead the visitor into the garden. In-ground uplights are focused on the silver birch trees on the perimeter and within the central courtyard to accentuate the idea of bringing nature inside at night.
A lighting control system has been installed to ensure flexibility, using local dimming keypads within each of the spaces, set with pre-programmed scenes to suit the various functions and uses.
By only using light where required and using efficient luminaires and controls, the installed lighting load has been kept below 6W/m ².