Dwelling
Laundry and drying area
housingapartment buildinghotelsheltercommunal laundry
The area of the house or building where clothes are washed, hung and dried. It brings together the laundry sink or the washing machine, a place to hang clothes in the sun and air, and space for folding.
What it solves
Drying with sun and breeze uses no electricity and wears the fabric less. In the rainy tropics it also calls for a roofed, well-ventilated drying line for the season of downpours.
Today
Place it next to the laundry sink with a drying line in the breeze, partly open to the sky and partly under an eave or behind a ventilated lattice. Leave a trapped drain and a washable floor.
Common mistake
Enclosing the laundry area in an unventilated room where clothes do not dry and mold appears.
Tomorrow
With folding drying racks, ventilated roofs and low-consumption washing machines, the house can dry almost all its laundry without an electric dryer. In tall buildings a shared drying area on the roof saves energy and creates a meeting place.
Fact An electric dryer emits on average about 2 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per load, something the clothesline avoids.
Where it comes from
- 1Rotary clothesline Australia, 1925 to 1945
A metal clothesline that turns with the wind exposed laundry to the breeze in little space and became a symbol of Australian backyards. - 2Right-to-dry movement United States and Canada, since 2008
After decades in which the clothesline was seen as a sign of poverty, several provinces and states passed laws that prevent banning it.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Dwelling
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.