The Light Project is the first in a planned series of collaborative design workshops held at Maggie’s Centre in Charing Cross Hospital, London. Maggie’s is a complementary therapy centre for cancer sufferers, offering a supportive environment away from home. 

 

The workshops aim to give centre users the opportunity to capture positive memories and express their experience of cancer. In the first workshop, seven participants were invited to collaboratively design lights, which were refined into finished objects for them to take home. Participants captured their memories and experiences through images, which were cut into their lampshades to create shadow-narratives in their home environments.

 

Their individual images were also cut onto wooden leaves, which were unveiled in a permanent installation at Maggie’s. Participants were invited to a celebratory event to receive their finished lights. At this event they shared their experiences and added their narratives to the collective installation, before raising it into the courtyard.

 

The workshop series will continue to explore collaborative design techniques with the users of healthcare environments, with the goal of creating better treatment experiences through a bottom-up design process.