Our twin beech huts are intended to provide a tactile feast to complement the sea view and engage the imagination. We saw the issue as being one of how of sensory, mobility, mental impairments and mental health issues create a barrier to the experience of visiting the sea.

Trips to the seaside are filled with anticipation – thoughts of the sea with longing; thus the sea has inspired many a narrative. Our aim was to open up the experience and build on this anticipation of the sea and make the experience equally available to those who are restricted by disability. Texture and colour in the design for those with visual impairments are seen as critical and are generally employed for the functional requirement of navigation. We wanted to use these, not only as a tool of orientation, to differentiate the huts for example, but also to create an aesthetic experienceBuilding on the narratives inherent in trips to the sea, enhancing and making these accessible via texture, and colour in a way that engages the imagination, not only for those with visual impairments but for all.

We combined the traditional vernacular of the beech hut with the idea of stratification and gave it a little twist. Enter the huts and you find the walls are engraved with sea poetry and fossils.