Decontextualise to Decolonise: Offering Table

Maya Amin-Sanchez from the Interior Architecture course at the University of Brighton writes about an Offering Table as part of the Decontextualise to Decolonise project.

Offering Table: Case Number 22

Anonymous Advice

The Anonymous Advice Centre is a comforting and safe space. It is centred around the Ancient Egyptian Offering Table. The Offering Table was initially used to offer goods, like bread, oil and honey. This was to the dead or to the gods.

The object’s initial use and aspect of “offering” is maintained. The advice centre offers advice for physical and psychological challenges. The space is designed to protect the customers’ anonymity. It helps the public build up the courage to visit and open up to the counsellors. I ensured that each counselling room was divided by a concrete wall. The space was split into two areas. One space was for the counsellor, and the other for the customer. This division wall has a ‘speak hole’ and another hole to slot in the small clay offering table. It is accessible to both sides of the room and used to exchange information leaflets. The building has separate entrances and separate routes throughout. Staff and the customers do not encounter one another, maintaining the theme of anonymity. This causes the design to have numerous staircases within the centre.