Navigating Urban Floodplains for Equitable Waterfront Leisure.

The project addresses inaccessibility and unequal leisure provision across Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) floodplains by reimagining Gurnell Leisure Centre. Guided by the principles of Riddle (past: floodplain cohabitation), Rubble (present: redistributive retrofit), and Ripple (future: accessible water leisure), the project proposes a network of dispersed leisure fragments to create an inclusive floodplain leisurescape. Here, land yields to water, offering leisure while safeguarding towns from floods. With reciprocity between humans and the floodplain in mind, on-site biosolid concrete and terracotta form assimilations that adapt to the terrain, shaping water-borne spaces for people and wildlife once isolated. The masterplan reconfigures MOL leisure infrastructure for resilience through adaptive function not resistance to decay. Thus, the proposal gradually reclaims the floodplain’s latent vitality to renew a civic ecology of equity, stewardship, and delight on the MOL.