Newbuild seaside residence, Kingsbridge, Devon, 2006

SUMMARY: These are preliminary sketches for a beach house for a private client. The house was to be perched on a steep bank overlooking the Sal estuary at Kingsbridge in Devon, with balconies cantilevered out over the beach below.

The beach house was to occupy a small but prominent site - a promentory-like part of the garden of an existing cottage adjoining the estuary.

The accommodation was to comprise four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a Lounge with a fireplace (all with panoramic views to the South and West), and a Kitchen/Dining area galleried over the Lounge. The Lounge and Kitchen/Dining areas were to have balconies on their seaward side.

Sketches were completed in summer 2006 and a Planning Consultant briefed to assist us with a Planning Application. However our client thereafter decided not to proceed with the project.

DETAIL: The size, shape and slope of the site virtually dictated the design, though the angled geometry used was a design decision (see below). All of the principal rooms and bedrooms were to have uninterrupted views across the estuary to natural landscape beyond.

With a residence on the sea one is looking for as much exposure to the view as possible. With the site steeply sloping towards the sea achieving sea views for all of the rooms would involve stretching the accommodation along the long axis of the site. However the narrowness of the site dictated that the accommodation needed to be lined-up as a block one room wide but split on at least two levels with the lower level dug into the ground. The highest level for any atructure was set by the desire not to block views out towards the sea from behind the house. On the other hand there was an absolute minimum distance we could place a floor to a habitable room above Ordnance Chart Datum. So the highest point of the house and its lowest floor levels were set by external determinants.

The geometry of this house was derived directly from the line of the end wall of the bedroom wing adjoining an existing bungalow next door. In sketches I slanted the end wall towards the South in order to permit the neighbouring bungalow an unobstructed view downriver. This was not as the result of a complaint or any stipulation, it came out of a desire to accommodate the house to its surroundings. The slanting of the end wall also took away the impression of a thick and blocky building, making the bedroom block seem thinner than it actually was.

Rather than have the one end wall at odds with the rectilinear walls within I  kept to the angle of the end wall, and its reflex angles, in all of the walls within the house. This created accommodation that seemed to be orientating towards the South and downriver.  

There were to be balconies to both the Lounge and Kitchen levels, each cantilevering up to 12 feet over the beach. These were to have grilled floors to allow sea winds to blow up through them without causing structural damage. Likewise the Lounge roof was to be trellised on the S and SW sides to offer solar shading in summer, whilst reducing wind uplift on the roof. The roof overhang on the S/SW sides was to act like the brim of a hat - keeping out the steep hot sun of summer but allowing in the lower and cooler beams of winter sun. The aspect to the rear was to be single-storey, low-key and offer no hint of what lay on the seaward side.

The bedroom block was to offer cabin-like bedrooms with tall windows looking out over the estuary. It was envisaged to be constructed of the same stone as the sea wall nearby, and would quickly be overgrown with climbers to blend in to the background, almost like an rock outcropping. The intention of this was so that it would act as an 'anchor' for the lighter Lounge and Kitchen/Dining structure. These areas, with their soaring windows and cantilevered steel balconies were to be by contrast spectacular and ship-like.