Revathy Raveendranath

Born in India, and brought up in the Middle East among people of various nationalities, I am a designer with an understanding of various cultures and differences and how spaces influence the ways of people residing within them. A sense of place, connection to the local community with their interests at the core, mental wellbeing of people post the pandemic that rocked the world, are all themes that I explore in my project. My ultimate goal is to provide inspiring and meaningful places for people to get together and connect.

Bringing nature into design, and the concept of biophilia is something that I have always been interested in. My dissertation titled 'Biophilic Design: The Need of The Hour?' was awarded a distinction in 2021. In today's highly technological and digitally driven world, people have lost connection with nature somewhere along the way. I aim to create spaces where people rethink this connection and benefit from greenery and natural materials in interior spaces.

My thesis project titled 'The Wellness Place' is a space that focusses on wellbeing of the locals and encourages people to meet by creating things together. Physical tactile activities like pottery, cooking and gardening all play an important role and fosters connections among people. It is a rooted to the ground project celebrating local materials and local craftsmanship.

The Wellness Place is an inspiring community space that would encourage people to meet by creating things together.

Lowestoft as city has a long standing history with ceramic. The Lowestoft Porcelain factory was a soft paste factory that existed in the 1800's and produced useful wares. Pieces of Lowestoft porcelain are still on display in various museums all over the country. The reason for this importance of porcelain production in the city was due its geology. There are abundant gault clay deposits in Lowestoft and its vicinity and it was this clay that was used in ceramic production. The history of the past heritage has carried through to the present and there is a vibrant collective of ceramic artists in the city today. The project would offer them a space to get together and share their craft with the people of Lowestoft irrespective of age.

With the onset of the pandemic, mental wellbeing of people all over the world took a toll. In coastal cities like Lowestoft that have low health outcomes in general, this effect was worse. A lot of people began turning to pottery to reduce stress and overcome anxiety. Pottery acted as an antidote to the digital world. Other physical, tactile activities like cooking and gardening that required people to create things with their hands also enjoyed a revival during the lockdown of the past couple of years.

The project would offer a quiet space setback from the busy high street for people of all ages to spend time together. Communal seating spaces, cooking workshops, kids' play spaces, public dining spaces and pottery workshops make up the major part of the program. Vegetable beds grown throughout the site would offer the people, especially children a chance to grow their own food which could then be prepared and served in the cooking studios. The memory of the existing site is retained through the metal framework that remains from the Clubhouse of the Old Post Office. This framework lends itself to support various activities of the new proposal at various parts of the project.

Lowestoft, Suffolk

The Former Post Office & Surroundings

The Clubhouse – It has a prefabricated metal frame supporting an asbestos roof. The room is light and airy and full of natural daylight.

The Lean-To-Garage – Adjacent to the Clubhouse is the lean-to space which is a leftover space covered with a corrugated sheet. In contrast to the Clubhouse, this space is dark, gloomy and has minimal daylight.

The Gault brick building – This is a three storey building made of gault brick situated next to the lean-to space

The site is located in Lowestoft, Britain's most easterly town and the second largest town in Suffolk. The site for the project this year is the Former Post Office of Lowestoft with the main entrance from the busy high street called London Road. The rear portion of the site is set back and faces the relatively quieter Surrey Street. A local café called the Red Mingo, parking spaces and a NatWest bank surround this portion of the building

TIMELINE OF CONSTRUCTION

The Post Office was built in various parts throughout the past years. First came the front portion of the Post office that has a Grade II listed façade, and this was built in the Edwardian period. Later on in 1926 came the Clubhouse, which was a military pre-fabricated building that served a community purpose in the area. Finally in the period between 1926 and 1946 came the three storey gault brick building and its surrounding parts.

AREA OF INTEREST

All the buildings in the rear including the Clubhouse, the lean-to garage and the three storey gault brick building were added on later and are not included in the listing. The buildings are full of decay and show no significant architectural or conservational value. There is a lack of connection with the public realm and no sense of hierarchy in the space. All of these factors combined with the possibility of an urban renewal or regeneration of the space due to the possibility of connection to Surrey Street as well as the existing café and parking spaces surrounding this portion of the building, helped me to focus on this area as the focal point of my project

Gault clay was used extensively in the past in Lowestoft not just for ceramic production, but also for the production of a particular type of local brick called Suffolk brick. Reclaimed weathered Suffolk brick would be a major material used in the project. Local materials that can be put together using local craftmanship would make up the material palette for the space. This also offers the possibility of flexibility and redevelopment in the future. Other than Suffolk brick, materials like timber and stone that are easily available would be used.

The materials used would create a space for the community, funded by the community.

Proposed changes to the existing – All of the interventions are intended to open up the space, let in maximum daylight and create an engaging and inviting access to the public realm

The concept – The main concept was to create an open and engaging inviting permeable central circulation path connecting the building to the public realm beyond. It would also foster connections between activities on either side of the path. A focal point is generated at the corner of the gault brick building, the position and proportion of which is designed to have maximum visual impact on people walking through Surrey Street

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN(I and II)

The Kiln and surrounding spaces – All activities around the kiln are based on the element of fire. On the lower level the multi-level kiln functions both as an external community fireplace as well as pizza oven in the community kitchen/adults' cooking studio. On the floors above, the kiln acts as a wood-firing kiln for the pottery workshops. The kiln is made of fire brick and has a heat resistant glazed ceramic façade.

The Kiln- Details – The wood-fired kiln has three parts: The fire box where the fire would be lit, and the ash would collect, the ware chamber where the ceramic pottery to be fired would be loaded, and the flue through which the fumes would escape

The vegetables in the beds are chosen according to the climate of Lowestoft. The plants in the beds are arranged throughout the site in according to their requirement of light and shade. The planters that they are contained in are made of Suffolk brick.

THE BUILDING AS A CERAMIC ARCHIVE, media item 1

The entire building functions as a ceramic archive or community pottery library of sorts for Lowestoft. Work that is finished/unfinished, work that is amateur/professional are all displayed in various ways throughout the building.

The open storage/informal display in the pottery workshops situated at the façade of the building offers an opportunity for the locals to understand the process behind the production of a piece of pottery. Pots that are unfired, unglazed, types of glaze, books on pottery, are all stored here.

An Overview – The entry to the site is through the Surrey Street. The kiln is the major focal point of the space creating maximum impact on people passing through the street serving to draw people into the space. The major material used in the space is gault clay. Clay is used in the Suffolk brick that makes up the major material of the space. Clay is also used in the production of pottery that is made in the workshops and in the ceramic ware that is used to serve food in the public dining space.

The kiln as a communal fireplace – The fireplace acts as a social hub encouraging people to come together and form connections.

The public dining space

The public dining tables are attached on to the retained frame of the existing building. The tables can be folded back against the frame to free up floor space to host small social events or local gatherings

The planters and dining tables are arranged at a horizontal axis in contrast to the extremely vertical feature of the kiln to create contrasting features in the space

The community kitchen/cooking studio – The community kitchen is positioned behind the external fireplace. The kiln functions as a pizza oven in this space

The open display/informal storage

The pottery workshop – This would be a space for the locals of Lowestoft, both adults and children, to get together to create something useful and learn the art of pottery, while being surrounded by a library of work that other members of the community have created before them

The Kiln Room

Kids' cooking studio & Public dining space – The Kids' cooking studio has a small kiln that functions as a pizza oven and as a support for creeper vegetables like tomatoes/peas etc. The counter space at one end of the studio offers adults an opportunity to have a drink or some food while keeping an eye on the kids in the studio and in the play space beyond.

The community garden and kids' play area – The kids play area is designed to be a semi-enclosed space with low brick walls and varying heights of planters keeping in mind the safety of the children. Community seating spaces are also interspersed within the space. The retained frame of the existing building functions as a support for the climbing wall for the children.

The Market Space – This is a space at the rear of the project with outdoor garden plots and spaces for locals to hold pop-up markets and sell various produce during various days of the week.

Revathy Raveendranath

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Royal College of Art