Studio 2.2 2008/09 Croydon Lido

In 2008/09 Studio 2.2 (Eleanor Suess & Eytan Melamud) worked in Croydon as part of the school-wide project which saw all degree and diploma architecture students developing projects in the South London borough.

Croydon was supposed to be the new utopia. This desire for what Croydon could become was founded upon a modernist paradigm of city planning, however Croydon now exists as a comic icon for an unfashionable modern city, a dystopian vision.

Studio 2.2 worked on a project which attempted to bring moments of water orientated utopia back to Croydon through the design of spaces for open-air public bathing. The schemes for a Croydon Lido were situated on a number of redundant sites in central Croydon.

The studio sought to understand the implications of introducing a festive, social activity to this context by reclaiming one of these sites on a sunny, spring afternoon.