Stage by the Sea

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Sited in a sunken garden beside the beach in Littlehampton, ‘Stage-by-the-Sea’ acts as a stage and shelter for the local community. The bandstand uses spray concrete, which is more normally associated with tunnelling and other underground infrastructure projects, to create a remarkable architectural shell structure. The shells’ unique shape and interior surface has been sculpted to reflect, project and focus the sound of performers towards the audience, providing fantastic acoustics for musicians and eliminating the need for electronic amplification – a modern counterpoint to the World War Two era ‘sound mirrors” located further down the coast.

Judge's comment:

Slick, clever and beautiful! These twin concrete shells impressed the judges with their optimal balancing of acoustic and structural considerations, their elegant forms and their shotcrete construction methodology, and this under an extremely challenging £100,000 budgetary constraint.