Birnbeck Island - the SEAGARDEN
Project location:Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset UK
Client: Urban Splash
Project Status: Competition entry
Structural Engineer: SKM Anthony Hunt
Services Engineer: Buro Happold
Writer: Saskia Lewis
Timescale: November 2007
DIARY FROM A DAY IN AUGUST 2012
I woke this morning as the earth rolled around its axis and the sun reappeared into a blue near-cloudless sky. I spent a moment on the balcony watching the tide pull right away from the shore, then dressed and left my apartment to take a swim in one of the freshwater pools. Pools, both fresh and saltwater, are trapped in amongst the curious sublime new landscape that negotiates land and sea. Early morning is the best time for a solitary swim. There is an early lull to the rhythm of the pier.
My father would describe the old days when he was taken here on holiday as a child, how the pier at Birnbeck would ring deafening with penny machines. How cheated he had felt on the beach when the extreme, shallow pitch would mean that at low tide the sea itself seemed miles from shore separated by a vast inhospitable expanse of mud flats. Then how poignant and sad we had both felt one day when we passed by and found the whole Birnbeck site derelict and abandoned, the fun of the fair having moved to the new pier in town.
The area is re-born, that is why I have come to live here. The old concrete decks that were crumbling have been broken down or crushed and re-used to form part of this new sculptural landscape. The rubble is either held in trawler nets to create freeform walls planted with mosses and seaweeds or mixed into the recipe that makes the surface of a geography that looks as if it has been eroded by a fictional past into curvy hollows that either collect water or shelter us from the wind and tidal currents. This is where I sometimes sit to read, I was there yesterday, the weather was entirely different, a chill was whipping down the estuary and as the afternoon developed Wales disappeared behind a veil of cloud.
As I walked back from my swim I could see people harvesting the oysters on the oyster beds surrounding the rock pools ? later I shared a dozen with two close friends in one of the cafes on the pier, a familiar regular indulgence. Towards midday the pier becomes busy with chatter, people meet to eat together or take a stroll across the SEAGARDEN. Children wade in rock pools collecting specimens armed with nets and buckets laden with samples. The paddle steamer docks at the rebuilt jetty and disgorges its load. When the tide is high we feel that we are near marooned on an exclusive island.
Late afternoon sees another surge of energy around the pier as people take tea. I met up with my parents who have been looking after my two children for a couple of days ? they were full of laughter and stories of their adventures. While I stayed with the kids who are back to their rock pool habit ? hours of daily ritual, my parents took a walk across timber decks to the tower to take in the view across the estuary, have a browse in the shops, drink tea and catch up with a few people that they know from around here.
As dusk falls the light on the pier and landscape intensifies, its mirror image shimmers in the water ? the light they say is generated from the tidal turbines that sit under the structural apron. This evening we cook together, my parents, husband, children and I and look out over the bay as we eat. We talk about old times, our memories and the future. My father smiles, his parents would have been astonished at the changes he says, but they would have loved to see the Eugenius Birch pier restored to vibrant life surrounded by the magic of the SEAGARDEN beautiful by day and night.
© Saskia Lewis
Project location:Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset UK
Client: Urban Splash
Project Status: Competition entry
Structural Engineer: SKM Anthony Hunt
Services Engineer: Buro Happold
Writer: Saskia Lewis
Timescale: November 2007
DIARY FROM A DAY IN AUGUST 2012
I woke this morning as the earth rolled around its axis and the sun reappeared into a blue near-cloudless sky. I spent a moment on the balcony watching the tide pull right away from the shore, then dressed and left my apartment to take a swim in one of the freshwater pools. Pools, both fresh and saltwater, are trapped in amongst the curious sublime new landscape that negotiates land and sea. Early morning is the best time for a solitary swim. There is an early lull to the rhythm of the pier.
My father would describe the old days when he was taken here on holiday as a child, how the pier at Birnbeck would ring deafening with penny machines. How cheated he had felt on the beach when the extreme, shallow pitch would mean that at low tide the sea itself seemed miles from shore separated by a vast inhospitable expanse of mud flats. Then how poignant and sad we had both felt one day when we passed by and found the whole Birnbeck site derelict and abandoned, the fun of the fair having moved to the new pier in town.
The area is re-born, that is why I have come to live here. The old concrete decks that were crumbling have been broken down or crushed and re-used to form part of this new sculptural landscape. The rubble is either held in trawler nets to create freeform walls planted with mosses and seaweeds or mixed into the recipe that makes the surface of a geography that looks as if it has been eroded by a fictional past into curvy hollows that either collect water or shelter us from the wind and tidal currents. This is where I sometimes sit to read, I was there yesterday, the weather was entirely different, a chill was whipping down the estuary and as the afternoon developed Wales disappeared behind a veil of cloud.
As I walked back from my swim I could see people harvesting the oysters on the oyster beds surrounding the rock pools ? later I shared a dozen with two close friends in one of the cafes on the pier, a familiar regular indulgence. Towards midday the pier becomes busy with chatter, people meet to eat together or take a stroll across the SEAGARDEN. Children wade in rock pools collecting specimens armed with nets and buckets laden with samples. The paddle steamer docks at the rebuilt jetty and disgorges its load. When the tide is high we feel that we are near marooned on an exclusive island.
Late afternoon sees another surge of energy around the pier as people take tea. I met up with my parents who have been looking after my two children for a couple of days ? they were full of laughter and stories of their adventures. While I stayed with the kids who are back to their rock pool habit ? hours of daily ritual, my parents took a walk across timber decks to the tower to take in the view across the estuary, have a browse in the shops, drink tea and catch up with a few people that they know from around here.
As dusk falls the light on the pier and landscape intensifies, its mirror image shimmers in the water ? the light they say is generated from the tidal turbines that sit under the structural apron. This evening we cook together, my parents, husband, children and I and look out over the bay as we eat. We talk about old times, our memories and the future. My father smiles, his parents would have been astonished at the changes he says, but they would have loved to see the Eugenius Birch pier restored to vibrant life surrounded by the magic of the SEAGARDEN beautiful by day and night.
© Saskia Lewis
