When it was built in 1968, the East Dulwich Grove Estate only had one community space for the residents; a small Laundry Room with a mono-pitch roof built on the eastern corner of the estate. The room was decommissioned in the 1980s and subsequently became semi-derelict and a dumping ground for the estate’s cast-offs. In 2011, the hall was refurbished thanks to a re-formed Tenants and Residents Association, support from local councillors and with grants from the Dulwich Community Council and Southwark’s Cleaner Greener Safer Fund. Our refurbishment of the space sought to provide a new sense of open-ness within the constraints of the existing building’s armature by providing two super-sized doors that opened through 180 degrees and remodelling the external ground levels. Added to this we inserted a new timber bench to control the use of the outside space, a simple kitchen formed from rubber board and new internal cladding demarking where we have made minor modifications to the plan form of the original building. Collectively, the modifications create a remodelled community space free of the ‘municipal trappings’ of most community halls and in keeping with the material and constructional traditions of the Dutch-influenced design of the estate.