How to Build a Laundry Room in Prison Architect: Step-by-step guide to creating an efficient laundry room

Building a laundry room in Prison Architect is an important way to keep your prisoners’ uniforms clean and improve the overall hygiene and morale in your facility. To create an efficient laundry room, begin by unlocking Prison Labour through the Bureaucracy menu. Once unlocked, head to the "Rooms" tab and designate a space as the Laundry room—this requires a minimum size, so ensure you allocate enough space, ideally near cell blocks for convenience. Next, furnish the room with laundry machines for washing, ironing boards for pressing, and laundry baskets for transporting clothes. Each of these items is essential for the laundry workflow. After setup, hire staff and assign prisoners to work in the laundry room via the Prison Labour tab. Assigning staff also helps keep operations moving. Don’t forget to connect utilities—laundry machines require electrical power to function. Properly managing your laundry boosts not only hygiene but can also strategically reduce prisoners’ clothing needs, contributing to facility satisfaction.

Tips 1:

As a designer and planner, I recommend thinking about the circulation flow within your prison. Place your laundry room in a location that minimizes distances to housing units, and ensure there’s a clear path for laundry baskets. Efficiency in layout is key for both security and workflow. If you’re interested in virtually mapping out the best layouts, advanced tools can help you visualize and optimize your space. Using a room planner allows you to experiment with different room arrangements before implementing changes in your prison design.

FAQ

Q: What are the requirements for a laundry room in Prison Architect?

A: You need to designate the area as Laundry and place at least one laundry machine, one ironing board, and one laundry basket.

Q: How do I unlock prisoners working in the laundry room?

A: Unlock Prison Labour in the Bureaucracy menu, then assign prisoners to laundry through the deployment/Prison Labour tab.

Q: Does the laundry room need to be powered?

A: Yes, laundry machines require electricity, so connect them to your power grid.

Q: How many machines do I need in a laundry room?

A: The number depends on your prison size; larger prisons need more machines and ironing boards for efficiency.

Q: Does laundry location affect prisoner happiness?

A: Placing the laundry near cell blocks reduces delivery times and helps ensure prisoners always have clean uniforms, which increases overall satisfaction.