A sea change

Enterprising Toronto designer Marco Jacob (Atelier Jacob) — in collaboration with architectural technologist Carlos Salazar — is hoping to build innovative new beach huts in Bournemouth, U.K. Jacob is taking part in a competition that invites professional artists, architects and designers to submit bold and dramatic concepts to reinvent a row of beach huts specifically for disabled beach users. The new huts will form a key part of the Boscombe Sea Change scheme, which will deliver the U.K.’s only purpose-designed accessible beach facilities.

Other projects underway include a seasonal beach access trackway made from recycled pier timbers, enabling visitors with mobility impairments to access the beach down to the waterline; improvements to accessible parking in front of the new huts; and a refurbishment of the accessible public toilet.
 
“The brief requests the design of four huts in total — two pairs of semi-detached structures,” says Jacob. “I call my design Britpop. It’s a redesign of the iconic beach hut but updated for the 21st century.”