East Beach café, Littlehampton Architecture, Contemporary West Sussex Building, Photos, Architects

East Beach café, Sussex : Littlehampton Building

English Beach Building design by Heatherwick Studio in Sussex, southeast England, UK

3 Mar 2008

Location: Littlehampton, West Sussex

Date built: 2007

Design: Heatherwick Studio

photograph : Andy Stagg

East Beach Café Building

Heatherwick Studio was commissioned to design a café building to replace a seafront kiosk in Littlehampton, a traditional seaside town on England’s south coast. Exposed to weather and vandalism, the narrow site sits between the sea and a parade of houses.

The studio saw its challenge as being to produce a long, thin building without flat, twodimensional façades. The building is sliced diagonally into ribbons which wrap up and over the building, forming a layered protective shell, open to the sea in front.

The opening is filled with glass doors and windows, protected at night by roller shutters concealed within the building’s geometry, the 30 centimetre width of the ribbons being the dimension of a shutter mechanism.

photo : Andy Stagg

In contrast to the conventional white-washed seaside aesthetic, the building is raw and weathered, its structural steel shell finished with an oil-based coating that permits a rust-like patination to develop without affecting structural performance. A kiosk and cafeteria by day and a restaurant in the evening, the new café seats forty five.

East Beach Café – Project Description

Location: Littlehampton, West Sussex
Function: Café, kiosk, and restaurant
Building Area: 280m²
Building Dimensions: H x 5m, L x 40 m, W x 7 m
Total Floor Area: 205 m²

Seats: 45 internal, 80 external
Exterior Structure: 8 millimetre Mild Steel treated with Owatrol Oil
Weight of Steel: 34 t
No. of Steel Ribbons: 36
Width of Ribbon: 30 cm
Completion: Jul 2007

East Beach café images / information from Heatherwick Studio

East Beach café design : Heatherwick Studio

Location: Littlehampton, Sussex, southeast England, United Kingdom

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