Lauren Page, now 29, originally returned to university in South Wales in 2020 to pursue a career in interior design after working for the local council for a few years. Since then, she has graduated with a First Class in interior design and has gone on to form her own company, Unpaged Studios. During her time at university, Lauren was asked as part of her final major project to find a building that was unused or used poorly and to create a hypothetical new design for it, using full creative freedom.
After realising that several buildings in Barry would be perfect, she settled on the former cloakrooms, which already had a potential proposal sent to the council, meaning that some of the information she needed for the project was readily available. Lauren said: “Since there was already a proposal in place for the former Cloakrooms, I was able to access some information about the building through planning in order to create my drawings and model in 3D. “In my research I found that this toilet block was part of the first development of the beach so there is great historic significance.
It also has a great location with a viewing platform on top overlooking the sea. "I came across this article that was questioning what was happening with the building. The proposals for restaurants were made before Covid and there has been little information since this 2023 article about the progress for the work.
“Then not long after choosing my building, it was announced that Barry was to re.