Winner of Next Wave Shelters & Kiosk Competition Announced

Young London architects Michael Tite and Tom Ebdon have won the competition for the design of a new series of seafront structures for the seaside resort of Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, England.

Tite & Ebdon’s design, one of ten shortlisted from over 140 anonymous entries, was praised by the jury on both an aesthetic and functional level. The intimate ‘Y’ shaped seating plan of the shelter echoes the warmth of nestling in behind a windbreak whilst allowing people to people to enjoy the views from all directions.

Chair of the Jury Panel Niall McLaughlin said: ‘The challenge here is to design shelters that keep out driving rain and gales on an exposed waterfront while creating a lively presence on the promenade. The winning scheme allowed its form to emerge from the requirement for shelter, providing a beautiful scheme that is best captured with a lovely view from a sheltered seat out to the horizon’.

The new structures, with a total construction value of around £220,000 ($358,000), will comprise four seafront shelters and a kiosk, and will be a flagship element of the Council’s Next Wave Seafront Improvement Project, a wider £5 million cultural regeneration program that has received £1 million ($1.63 million) of funding from CABE under the Sea Change program.

The scheme is now awaiting approval from Rother District Council, the client, to commission and take forward the designs. If commissioned, Michael Tite and Tom Ebdon will work closely over the coming months with the client group to refine and work up the detail of their design concepts.