© Pierfrancesco Cravel . Pubblicata il 10 Settembre 2009.

The design of the shelters is the projection of a seaside landscape: scattered houses under a pine wood at the shore.

© Pierfrancesco Cravel . Pubblicata il 10 Settembre 2009.

Like a forest our tree-structures collect energy from the sun and transform it into light and heat for the night and winter. Additionally they protect the promenade from the sun and rain as they can be repeated homeomorphously along the entire promenade.

© Pierfrancesco Cravel . Pubblicata il 10 Settembre 2009.

Like stem cells they start an open and flexible system growing and spreading out to generate new overlaying and linked areas by defining new landmarks and mirroring the landscape of the shoreline.

The design creates the sensation of (temporary) living at the sea: sound effects, light and heat melt within an abstract house perimeter: a white landscape providing a highly reflective canvas for designed or classical benches as art work – distributed throughout the site.

The two houses (shelters) are placed along longitudinal and transversal axes to protect visitors from altering winds. A smaller one is designed in children’s size.

The underlying spirit is an architecture in dialogue with its sourrounding landscape (De La Warr pavillion and vernacular architecture), the emotion of the site, its history and stories.

We worked with British artist Richard Woods on restoring and redesigning the surfaces of the existing kiosk, located within our architectural pine-wood.“The kiosk has two different aspects: open and working during the summer days or closed and empty during the evenings and bleaker winter months. In summer the doors can be wrapped around the building – disguising the architectural ‘pattern’ and revealing local signs for ‘ice-cream’ etc.

The roofs remain at all times. When closed, the kiosk becomes a solid unit of architectural vernacular pattern.”