20_V2 Variability Hub
Location: London, United Kingdom
Project Year: 2020
Project Team: Christoph a. Kumpusch, Jonathan Roson, Audrey Marie Dandenault
V-2 is a Variability-Hub for Humanity situated in London’s Borough of Hackney at the headquarters for VERV.London, the largest gender-fluid retailer in Europe.
It is a community and creative space for the LGBTQ+ community in East London – its architecture being able to take on fluid programming in a matter of minutes – with a particular emphasis on providing services and safe spaces for transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming individuals. This project was made possible through funding from the Mayor of London this year. Its mission is to strengthen and make visible challenges and movements within the community it serves. In its spaces V-2 focuses to work on reversing the effects of lack of legal protection, poverty, harassment and stigma, violence and barriers to healthcare. A safe space with a fully public gender-fluid bathroom and powder room is the first of its kind in the neighborhood, along a debate and community workspace for indoor and outdoor working. V-2 believes in the importance of visibility in order to create acceptance. It provides space for it – physically and otherwise.
