Birnbeck Island
Birnbeck Island
Seaside towns and ports encapsulate the romance and character of the British. For over two hundred years, they provided an escape from centres of industry. Ordinary and exotic co-existed side by side, and discovering the extraordinary in the ordinariness is what excites the curious visitor. Birnbeck Island has been used as a steamer pier, a weapon testing area and a pier-head ride with recreational facilities. The proposal takes advantage of the isolated location, the perfect setting for a hedonistic life-style, based upon health and well being.
It includes among other things, a tower hotel and restaurant, multi-therapeutical baths with thalassotherapy, training and fitness facilities and beauty and health spas. Our exploratory proposal reinforces the access to the island and enhances it through an extraordinary mechanistic structure that incorporates and interlocks with the remnants of the Victorian infrastructure of buildings and piers. Its elements are expressed as a steam engine whose qualities are further articulated in the detail of the design.
It includes among other things, a tower hotel and restaurant, multi-therapeutical baths with thalassotherapy, training and fitness facilities and beauty and health spas. Our exploratory proposal reinforces the access to the island and enhances it through an extraordinary mechanistic structure that incorporates and interlocks with the remnants of the Victorian infrastructure of buildings and piers. Its elements are expressed as a steam engine whose qualities are further articulated in the detail of the design.
The project harnesses and generates power through the use
of the spectacular tides, wind and solar power. This apparently static geometrical structure combines a machine aesthetic with dynamic components, and by flooding basins and driving turbines, it achieves the attributes of a working engine.
Clashing geometries are engineered to extend and enhance the spectacular high-level approach to the cantilevered walkways and terraces. Viewed from a distance it has the dramatic quality of a drilling rig set against the horizon.
Location: Weston-super-Mare
UK Client: Urban Splash
Size: 27,000 sqm / 290,625 ft
of the spectacular tides, wind and solar power. This apparently static geometrical structure combines a machine aesthetic with dynamic components, and by flooding basins and driving turbines, it achieves the attributes of a working engine.
Clashing geometries are engineered to extend and enhance the spectacular high-level approach to the cantilevered walkways and terraces. Viewed from a distance it has the dramatic quality of a drilling rig set against the horizon.
Location: Weston-super-Mare
UK Client: Urban Splash
Size: 27,000 sqm / 290,625 ft
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