| Maggies Centre,
Ninewells, Dundee, Frank Gehry Building Discussions on Current Architectural Topics e-architect |
| architecture debate: maggies dundee |
![]() Deconstructing the deconstructivists - Gehry [mark chalmers] I think perhaps everyone comes to the Maggies Centre at Ninewells in Dundee from a different angle: for what its worth, this quibble isnt about aesthetics, rather the inappropriateness of the style of the building for its function, and also the approach taken to designing a respite centre. Many of us feel that a respite centre should be calm, a place of stillness and peace rather than embodying the restless geometries of the deconstructivists. I clearly remember Doug Allards thesis scheme for a care centre on the same Ninewells site: he was still a student at Duncan of Jordanstone. His was a far more sophisticated response to the users and the site: in terms of scale, the use of colour theory, formal harmony, the creation of quiet spaces, but certainly not the outward expression of a tourist attraction that Gehrys building has. Likewise, the Rachel House hospice in Kinross from ten years ago is fitter for purpose, as were Murphys Maggies in Edinburgh, and Page & Parks Maggies in Glasgow: the early Maggies Centres seem to work better than the later ones. Charles Jencks is the sponsor of the Maggies Centres, and he has exercised a powerful influence over their form. He is primarily a critic, who like Philip Johnson has had a chance to influence rather than just spectate in the creation of buildings. It could be said that his preoccupation with the jumping universe, as he calls quantum mechanics, has overtaken a genuine desire to make places for people. Frank
Gehry
doesnt build anything other than buildings which look like car
crashes, so you could predict that the Dundee
building would look like this, if not even more extreme. In
fact, Gehry recounted that messages from
Maggie
Keswick Jencks
received in dreams told him to calm down the architecture.
In quieter moments, you wonder whether the choice of Gehry
was important in terms of fundraising,
in other words, good for PR.
However, how much extra fundraising was needed to pay for
the baroque roof? Anecdotally, there were contractor comments about the
complexity of making what was practically unbuildable,
and that cost of the roof is obviously very high. |