Maggie’s provide emotional, practical and social support for people with cancer and their families and friends. But they do more than that.
They believe in the power of design. Rather than providing these very important things from a room in the hospital or a porter cabin somewhere in its grounds, they commission top architects like Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers and Frank Gehry to build stunning centres in the grounds of specialist cancer hospitals. They invest in beautiful interiors – Paul Smith recently designed one for Nottingham. The walls are hung with proper art. Every detail is thought of from regularly plumped cushions to the size and weight of the mugs.
It is because of this that they seem like the natural choice of charity partner for anyone involved in design, so I am really glad that designjunction paired up with them this year.
In his second iteration of The Joy of Living, London Design Festival Deputy Director Max Fraser asked a pretty stellar line up of designers to customise a piece of their own domestic design inspired by the “the joy of living”. The brief comes from something Maggie’s founder Maggie Keswick Jencks once said: “Above all what matters is not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying”.
Over 50 designers including Barber Osgerby, Lee Broom and Bethan Gray responded with one-off pieces that exuded joy and optimism. Anthony Dickens designed a stand inspired by a Maggie’s Centre. Selected pieces were auctioned on the first night with the rest on sale at a fixed price throughout the show. £15,000 was raised
Unique Piece by Jaime Hayon for Baccarat
“Up in to the Trees” Mantis Desk,
Case Furniture
Joy of Crystal by Lee Broom
Uncontainable Joy, Peter Crawley
Customised Bike, Tokyo Bikes
Joy Vase, Simon Hassan
UW 250 Series Uccello, Uniform Wares
Brogue Leather Table, Bethan Gray
Butterfly Chair, Ercol
Customised Chair, PearsonLloyd
Bocci
