Florence Mine Cultural and Community Centre Part 1 Project 2025 Alexander Challis University of Lincoln Lincoln | UK Located in Egremont, Cumbria; the project balances a historic social discourse, materiality, and circulation patterns as the base of a conceptual focus. Designed within the context of the Florence Red Iron Ore Mine, the integrated scheme is a phenomenological experience addressing the 1980’s Miners Strikes. Serving primarily as a community centre with exhibition spaces, ceramic workshops and hospitality venues, the site offers a multi-functional experience aiming to depict a narrative, and serve the local and wider mining community.The design offers a transition from the darkness of the mines to the lightness above ground repurposing the mining shaft into a lift that descends the visitor into exhibition. Corten steel, pilotage brickwork and pigmented screed form a material palette that addresses both the sites aesthetic quality and emulates the semiotic qualities of a mining experience. The exhibition design diverts spatial circulation at horizontal and vertical planes, allowing the site to become a journey from entry to exit that through various mediums, pays homage to an area of Britain’s history that provided a sufficient emotional body, exploring how architecture can be designed in service of a collective memory. Tutor(s)