The Bathhouse is reimagined as a community healing space where refugees and local residents can overcome emotional, cultural, and language barriers through care, conversation, and shared experience. The original function of the bathhouse was linked to washing, health, and public service, so the new proposal builds on this history by transforming physical cleansing into a wider idea of emotional and social healing. Instead of only being a place for the body, the bathhouse becomes a place for the mind, identity, and community.

The project responds to people who may feel displaced, isolated, or unable to fully express themselves because of trauma, language barriers, cultural differences, or fear of judgment. For refugees, entering a new country can create invisible thresholds: between past and future, safety and uncertainty, belonging and exclusion. The design uses these thresholds as part of the spatial journey, creating softer transitions from private reflection to shared interaction.

Inside the building, the programme encourages gentle forms of connection. Spaces for quietness, listening, conversation, making, learning, and communal gathering allow people to engage at different levels depending on how comfortable they feel. Some areas may offer privacy and emotional release, while others encourage cultural exchange and collective support. This aligns with the brief’s focus on barriers, thresholds, and interconnections, especially through spatial moments that help people move from separation to trust and participation.

A key part of the concept is speaking and being heard without judgment. Your interactive furniture/prototype supports this by creating a physical barrier that still allows communication. It protects the speaker emotionally while still keeping the listener present, turning the barrier into a tool for connection rather than separation. This reflects the aim of Task 03: creating an interactive piece that encourages human interaction, dialogue, or participation.

Overall, the bathhouse becomes a new kind of civic interior: a refuge, a listening space, and a place of rebuilding. It does not erase the building’s past, but reinterprets its history of care into a contemporary response to migration, loneliness, and community healing.

Concept: Perforated Surface

“Perforated surfaces are inspired by things like leaves, patterned screens, and sunlight shining through gaps. They help create spaces that feel open but still private, letting light and air pass through while adding interesting patterns and textures.”

Fashion is a Reaction: Cause & Effect was a group exhibition project exploring how fashion responds to social, cultural, and environmental change. The exhibition was organised into three zones: accessible and affordable fashion, cultural identity and exchange, and sustainable fashion futures. I collaborated with my group in developing the overall concept and supporting the visual direction, including the exhibition narrative, display language, colour palette, and spatial visuals.