Laundry Room

In Switzerland, laundry has progressively disappeared from the public realm, becoming an individualized domestic task despite its long history as a collective activity. The project reclaims washing as a social practice by transforming the Hardturm parking garage into a shared infrastructure where domestic labor becomes visible and collective. Rather than optimizing efficiency, the project values the time of waiting, drying, and folding as opportunities for encounter.

It responds both to the everyday needs of commuters and neighborhood residents and to contemporary forms of urban living, where limited domestic space often prevents the maintenance of bulky objects such as bicycles, sports equipment, or camping gear.

The intervention unfolds across two interconnected floors, and separates wet and dry functions while linking them through the circulation of warm air and water. Reusable drying structures, semi-transparent facades, and adaptable spatial configurations create environments that vary between openness and intimacy

By shifting laundry from the private household into the public domain, the project reimagines reproductive labor as a shared urban resource, where care is produced through everyday encounters as much as through domestic work itself.

Spring 2026

Project by: Fiona Wong, Lilo Patt, Laura Brunner, Nina Richle

Teaching team: Anna Puigjaner, Dafni Retzepi, Paule Perron,Valentina Noce, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Lisa Maillard, Pol Esteve Castelló, He Shen

Images 3, 4, 5: Luís Úrculo

Images 1, 2: Pierre Marmy