Friday 9 April 2010

HERNE BAY REGENERATION IN KENT BY CLAGUE ARCHITECTS FOR DENNE AND COPLAN ESTATES

This might well be a perfectly reasonable, anodyne, mixed-use masterplan. But the images are just so, so depressing. They've bothered to make jaunty colours for the awnings and parasols, complete with a highlight showing the merciless sun beating down on the North Kent coast as if it were the Costa del Sol. But they couldn't really be bothered to make any decisions about materials or detail for the buildings.
This is the kind of thing you do when you don't want anyone to think the buildings are going to be too good, because the developer might then actually have to build something of high quality.
"Keep it vague lads, and stick a hot air balloon in it - that always makes people feel like we're down with whole seasidey, public space vibe."
The fucking wavy roofs are just embarrassing, as is the likely justification for these pointlessly jaunty forms. They look like waves. The sea is nearby. Ergo, the building is contextual. You sorry, sorry bastards.
Loving the vision and subtlety in the paving proposal, too.
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5 comments:

  1. Nemesis 9 April 2010 at 18:50

    Oh, cmon, it ain't so bad, the jaunty awning... the parasols... permanent summer... that hot air balloon... they didn't add the Kid with Balloon. So it's OK.

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  2. Unknown12 April 2010 at 15:42

    I've seen shoe boxes with more character than this trash. I just don't know what I dislike the most, the tediously uninteresting facade, the stupidly bulky projecting windows, the ludicrous wavy roof boxes that are just plonked ontop of an already bad building, or the offensive use of concrete paving. The most worrying thing is that I don't think the lack of colours or material details on the elevations is a mistake or ommission, it will end up looking exactly like this.

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  3. Lucy R. Fisher24 April 2010 at 22:20

    "Masterplans", mixed use - it could have worked! That's what depresses me. It was just hot air.

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  4. Anonymous25 April 2010 at 18:17

    Let's just say it wouldn't have been too bad for Herne Bay's standard, after all the town is in desperate need of regeneration. The removal of those poxy Palm Tree's that they have strewn
    along the central Parade would've been sufficient.

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  5. Anonymous17 September 2010 at 17:25

    It's just so nothingy :/

    Herne Bay has a lot of interesting structures and coastal buildings (obviously a lot of them in varying states of disrepair and depression but that's by the by!) It would be so much better to try to channel those and make something more congruous to the local area than marooning something bland there. Ignoring the surrounding buildings tends to create the impression that the heart of any place is disappearing.

    A while back I made a Herne Bay flickr gallery to basically prove the point that it does have a character even if it's also rather run down - some of the coastal buildings and structures are in it if you're curious:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/platoisboring/galleries/72157624129014339

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