Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project

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Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project

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  • Project Name: Roots for Renewal
  • Student Name: Catriona Ng
  • Softwares/Plugins: AutoCAD , Rhinoceros 3D , Adobe Illustrator , D5 Render , Enscape , Adobe Photoshop
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Excerpt: ‘Roots for Renewal’ is a Masters Design Project by Catriona Ng from the ‘Bartlett School of Architecture – UCL.’ The project seeks to transform the abandoned Ladywell Baths and its surroundings into a shared sanctuary of slowness, where ecological renewal, heritage preservation, and community well-being intersect. It explores adaptive reuse, aiming to repurpose a site of decay into a place of mindfulness, connection, and sustainable living, while extending these values into the wider neighbourhood through thoughtful interventions.

Introduction: Nature inevitably reclaims abandoned urban spaces, creating delicate moments where the organic and the built environment converge. Just as ecosystems adapt and flourish under challenging conditions, design, too, can reimagine neglected sites to meet environmental and social needs, fostering renewal and growth.

Located in Ladywell, Lewisham, Roots for Renewal seeks to transform spaces of rest into shared resources rather than exclusive luxuries. At its core is the revitalisation of Ladywell Baths, reinterpreting the historic pool hall and its surrounding areas as a haven for slowness. Through gentle, purposeful practices—such as repairing garments, exploring botany, and cooking with the seasons—visitors are encouraged to reconnect with tactile rhythms and restorative traditions. Beyond the building, the surrounding land is rewilded, shifting from abandonment to thriving habitats that grow at the unhurried pace of nature. By encasing the structure in glass, the delicate materiality of the old bathhouse is preserved as a visible artefact of time. Weathering and decay are not hidden but embraced, made visible within a transparent envelope that acknowledges and slows their passage.

The project also envisions additional “slow living” spaces, from intimate interventions to wider neighbourhood-scale strategies.

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Site Context

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
A Tale of Two Paces
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Street typologies of Lewisham High Street and Ladywell Road show a stark contrast in building heights, use, and rates of development.
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Street typologies of Lewisham High Street and Ladywell Road show a stark contrast in building heights, use, and rates of development.

Situated in Lewisham, the central area is marked by constant movement—dense traffic, heavy footfall, and rapid development. Just south lies Ladywell, a neighborhood that has retained its village-like character.

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Introduction to the Abandoned Ladywell Baths
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Ladywell Baths Site Map
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
The activity map of Ladywell Road and Lewisham High Street indicates much higher levels of activity towards Lewisham Central.

These two areas embody contrasting rhythms: one fast-paced and relentless, the other gentle and unhurried. Within this duality lies the potential for Ladywell to become the borough’s restorative space, a place for the community to slow down and recharge.

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
A biodiversity analysis of Ladywell indicates a contrast in species richness between Ladywell Fields and the rest of the urban area. The project sees this as an opportunity to rewild the derelict lands surrounding Ladywell Baths, using the bathhouse as a method of channelling greenery throughout the neighbourhood.
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Delerict Ladywell Baths | Ladywell Baths With Oak Floor Covering First Class Pool In 1950

Ladywell Baths, a disused Victorian Grade II listed bathhouse, now sits in disrepair. Nestled within St. Mary’s conservation area, the two-story building features front and rear pool halls, along with slipper baths and function rooms. Once a vibrant hub for local life, the site now stands neglected and in need of renewal.

Design Process

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Imagining A Slow-Living Oasis In The City | Artefacts Of Slowness
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
The existing building is filled with a variety of rooms to form areas for bathing and privacy. The building contains many small corridors and staircases.
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Existing and proposed roof and structural systems which aim to retain most of the existing structure.

The project begins by examining the relationship between people, nature, and the concept of slowness. Ceramic vessels for mushroom cultivation were crafted as artifacts of slowness, embodying the subtle harmony between human activity and the natural world.

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
The glazing system above the pool hall creates a dual environment for swimming and greenhouse conditions. This system consists of a series of warped glass diamond panes held together by a steel membrane. This is attached a timber gridshell layer composed of interlocking curved glulam timber beams, and held together by steel plates that clamp layers together at their vertices.
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
This external balcony acts as a transitional element between the enclosed pool hall to outdoor natural spaces. The spider fitting system naturally retains moisture within the glazing ‘box’. The curved containment within the system is shaded, cool, and humid, which offers an ideal environment for mushrooms and natural decay to take place.
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
The courtyard uses a glazing system to form an indoor immersive greenspace within the existing courtyard. Archways have been punched in the second floor existing wall to create easy access, forming connections between the botany workshop and the ‘greenhouse’ space on the balcony.

In the early design stages, the existing bathhouse was carefully modeled and deconstructed. Its layered history and visible decay inspired the idea of enclosing the structure in glass. A series of structural and glazing systems were gradually tested to explore how each fragment of the building might be preserved and celebrated. 

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
The main trellis system uses a series of trellis archways and stairs to create a long meandering journey from the ground floor landscape to the first floor balcony. This system is covered in tensioned wire cables for vines and wild plants to grow onto, creating the illusion of platforms floating above greenery.
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Existing playtower windows are missing and boarded up. This glazing system provides an offset curved glass facade that divides the indoor and outdoor environment, but also allows greenery to grow through apertures. All joinery is separated from walls using glass panes, leaving an uplit gap that brings attention to the existing decaying walls.
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
This initiative explores methods of soil and wetland renewal to harness nature’s own ability to purify water drawn from the neighbouring River Ravensbourne. Within the restored pond, aquatic plants act as living filters, cleansing the river water. Once purified, the water would be gently pumped into the bathhouse pool, creating a continuous cycle of natural filtration and replenishment.

This approach not only safeguards the bathhouse’s fragile materiality but also embraces its ongoing weathering, allowing its history and memories to remain visible.

Final Outcome

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Final Axonometric
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Proposed Ground Floor Plan
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Proposed Section

The revival of Ladywell Baths introduces new interior structures, glazed enclosures, and spaces dedicated to slow-living practices, positioning the site as a centre for stillness and quiet connection. While the rewilding of surrounding neglected land supports ecological regeneration, the activities within the bathhouse nurture psychological renewal.

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
The Grow Garden invites the community to cultivate their own food, offering an alternative to conventional supermarket shopping. | This storyboard traces the slow gestures of kneeling, tending, watering,and sowing when gardening
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
This small-scale slow-living component converts an abandoned telephone box into a mini library with chairs that implement the Montessori method. The unhurried exploration of the library allows one to stop and look around
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
This clothing exchange kiosk is where the community can exchange clothes with each other. Exchanging clothes is a cost-free alternative to upgrading a wardrobe, that encourages people to be more mindful when buying clothes and shifts away from fast fashion

Extending into the wider neighbourhood, a series of small-scale interventions encourage mindfulness and a more attentive engagement with daily life. Across Ladywell, additions such as new cycle routes, expanded pavements, and carefully designed crossings promote movement at a human pace. Streets are further enriched with pollinator gardens and native planting, enhancing the area’s biodiversity. Collectively, these points form a network of slowness—where places for rest and reflection are reframed as shared resources rather than luxuries.

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
This slow-living component involves a structure that connects the carpark to St Mary’s Therapeutic Gardens and Ladywell Fields. It provides more direct access from the carpark to park and provides extra space for prams to be unloaded
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Neighbourhood Strategies

Conclusion: Ultimately, the project reimagines Ladywell Baths as a restored landmark and a catalyst for ecological, social, and psychological renewal. By embracing slowness, celebrating decay, and mindful interventions, it transforms forgotten spaces into shared sanctuaries, offering a living framework for balance, connection, and sustainable urban renewal.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]

Site Context

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project

Design Process

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project

Final Outcome

Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project
Roots for Renewal: Rewilding Ladywell Baths through Adaptive Reuse | Masters Design Project

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