Better by design: Zaha Hadid's new Maggie's Centre

For people seriously
ill with cancer, a positive outlook is essential. Yet so much of their
time is spent in soul-destroying waiting rooms and strip-lit clinics.
How much better for a patient to 'feel hugged by a building'. Simon
Garfield reveals why Zaha Hadid's new Maggie's Centre - the architect's
first commission on home soil - will be a fitting tribute to her late
friend, Maggie Keswick Jencks.
Zaha Hadid, the most acclaimed female architect of our age, has
struggled for years with a hurtful dilemma. Despite her fame and
success, despite an international reputation that has seen her win the
biggest prizes and the most exciting commissions, and despite making
London her professional headquarters for 26 years, she has never built
a building in Britain. 'It's ridiculous,' she says in the vast
conference room at her office in Farringdon, London. 'I have no idea
why they don't choose me! I can't speculate any more. Nobody has
actually come up to me and said, "They don't want you here ..."'