The Narrative Source

FINALIST of London Urban Retreat: Haggerston Public Baths

+ FINALIST

London Urban Retreat: Haggerston Public Baths

[20440]

The Narrative Source: An architecture shaped by echoes

Team

Name: Pier-Ann Jacques

Instagram: @pierannj

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/pier-ann-jacques-architecture

Nationality: Canadian

Institution / Company: Master’s student in Architecture at Laval University

Name: Audrey Thomas Joyal

Instagram: @planify_tj

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-thomas-joyal

Nationality: Canadian

Institution / Company: Master’s student in Architecture at Laval University

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The project is grounded in the history of the baths, a place originally dedicated to care and the presence of water. Although water is no longer physically present, it continues to inhabit the building as a lasting memory, an invisible trace that has become a guiding and structuring principle. Water informs the project’s forms, circulations, and spatial relationships, shaping the organization of spaces and their articulation.

The building is structured around three foundational drops, initiating a process of spatial and narrative diffusion.

The first drop, Ascent, is expressed through the project’s vertical development. Organized around the main staircase, it rises through the building and culminates beneath the existing skylight, linking movement, light, and the upper-level gallery.

The second drop, Stage, is located within the former pool, the historical core of the building. Reinterpreted as a contemporary space for expression, it accommodates speech, music, and performance, allowing the memory of the site to be reactivated through collective experience.

The third drop, Epilogue, takes the form of a restaurant. Conceived as a place of gathering and daily use, it provides a moment of pause, where the architectural narrative resonates through shared time.

These drops generate waves that shape circulation, space, and experience.

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Jury Comments

– David Aldana

The proposal is indeed interesting but I fail to see how it aligns with the idea of becoming a retreat. London is filled with bars and cafes that provide these cultural events and platforms to express oneself, personaly I don’t see the need for another theatre in the city. I do find interesting the concept of using the existing building as a sort of exoskeleton and creating a design that is born in an almost parasitic manner (I do mean this as a complement) and I appreciate a lot the exploration done with the physical model.

– Josefine Fokdal

Very poetic transformation of the water theme into drops dedicated to collective memory in new forms. Nor much focus on the brief in terms of recreational space.