launderette. urban room. english language classes. fasallada luqadda ingiriisiga. exhibition of place.

South Redcliffe is seen as a place to transit through and not stay, is full of physical and metaphorical barriers, and shows no sense of the individual. The red sandstone ground has never been used for the people before.

It is the diverse Redcliffe community’s turn to transform this land into their own interpretation of memory. Our Room is a twist on the urban room, addressing the community’s inherent needs, while providing a space of future possibilities. This is a permanent architecture with a permeable landscape, connecting and engaging with memory and identity.

A developer presenting in the urban room enters directly into the ecofriendly launderette, immediately grounded into the lives of the people who live there. The stairwell is intentionally uncomfortable as they transition between spaces, circulating down into the exhibition space, an immersion into the contemporary idenitity and issues of South Redcliffe, finally emerging into the grounded urban room. The overlapping of spaces through a play with symmetry and heights driven by function, combines public and private thresholds, encouraging accidental interactions.

The glazing gives individuals flexibility to look down into spaces and feel encouraged and welcome to engage in them. The ground source heat pump punctures into the sandstone bedrock, radiating warmth through the rammed earth walls, addressing the cost of living crisis. The tower acts as a landmark for South Redcliffe, contradicting the verticality of the site while also serving as a wind catcher.