“Monumental” was a word used by one early visitor to describe the £9.5m multi-tiered Scarlet Hotel, a feat of German timber frame engineering.

Overlooking one of the best beaches in Cornwall, the ultra-contemporary hotel, clad variously in Douglas fir, copper, zinc and part rendered, is a striking new landmark on this stretch of coast and yet manages to blend seamlessly into its natural environment. Guests can watch the crashing waves from every bedroom and enjoy eco features including a chemical-free nature pool, water heated by biomass boiler and even  charging points for their electric cars.

The hotel was conceived by Rebecca Whittington, Emma Stratton and Deborah Wakefield, the owners of the nearby award-winning family-friendly Bedruthan Steps Hotel, who wanted to translate the success of the latter into a more adult-focused luxury resort with a spa.

For development director Simon Baldwin, the project had been an amazing privilege to work on, but emotionally demanding. “The architects had never built a hotel before, nor had I,” he said. “I was used to making hotels out of other buildings.”

After buying the one-acre site, occupied by a “hideous” existing hotel, in September 2006 the development team selected a design by Harrison Sutton Partnership and won enthusiastic council backing. It was clear the new hotel would have to be tiered because of the steep slope and that some curves would be beneficial. “One of the challenges of this site was to get enough rooms to make it viable,” Baldwin added.

Finding a builder for such a complicated project was not straightforward and there were sharp intakes of breath when the design and site conditions were shown to contractors. “It’s an exposed site and we knew it would take at least one winter to build through. And, of course, it was a boom time back in 2007 and everybody who was any good in the construction industry had enough work.”

Chance meetings led Baldwin to German timber frame builder Bauwerk whose UK work included houses for Countryside Properties and several exclusive properties in Sandbanks, Poole. Their timber engineering expertise and ability to definitively cost the project won them the contract.

After first removing more than 100 reptiles from the site, including snakes and lizards, work started in spring 2008 with 10,000m³ of earth being excavated to enable the hotel to sit sympathetically into the hillside. Use of timber frame meant light foundations – two 40mm prefab concrete sections bolted together with a 180mm void into which concrete was poured.

Bauwerk used its computer-controlled saws to manufacture “reverse wall” timber frame technology, where the sheathing board is on the inside of the frame – the opposite of standard platform framing in the UK. Also, Bauwerk designed the floors to hang off the inside of the wall (“balloon framing”) on hangers rather than sit on the wall panels. This, said Bauwerk MD Sven Mangels, meant floor joists don’t interfere with the vapour barrier and optimises the vapour process in the wall.

From the interior, the frame comprises plasterboard, then a 90mm battened service void, OSB sheathing, 140mm timber studs with Rockwool insulation, then 60mm Inthermo wood fibre boards rendered on site. On some of the elevations the Inthermo boards were substituted for 16mm Agepan DWD wood fibre boards. No membranes were used, instead the OSB acts as the internal vapour control layer in a breathing wall system.

KVH timber was used throughout. This is a kiln-dried and defect-cut free softwood wood made by a number of German sawmills under licence and designed to be straight and dimensionally stable – an essential requirement in achieving thermally efficient structures.

Floor joists depths varied from 140mm in short-span corridors up to 280mm, with some KVH duo/trio laminated beams used.

Acoustic performance was obviously an important consideration for the floors. Schluter’s Bekotec modular screed system was used on top of the OSB and acoustic insulation board sub floor covering. Bekotec comprises a studded egg-box-like polystyrene board over which a thin layer of screed is poured. The result is a 6-7dB improvement compared to standard requirements.

Doors and staircase and the Storck windows all came from Germany, while the floating timber flooring is Dutch.

The whole project took 96 lorries from Germany during a 15-month build, which was just two weeks late, despite design changes. “We have always had quite a good sustainability approach on projects but we’ve never had a client who gave the subject this much importance,” said Mangels.

As well as the Binder biomass boiler, there are 150m² of Wagner solar thermal panels to heat the indoor pool, a rainwater harvesting system, Pontos Aquacycle grey water recycling, a heat recovery system and areas of green roofing which use recyclable Alwitra membranes.

Architect Jon Capel of Harrison Sutton Partnership said “discovery and anticipation” were key design themes, the latter building when the sweeping hotel is first viewed on the road from Newquay and growing with the different perspectives on arrival.

The entrance has a timber floor design reminiscent of a jetty which leads to a floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall beyond which is an infinity pool. Capel said the interior gives constant glimpses of something “just around the corner”, aided by subtly curved corridors and the tiered structure. “It’s all about that view,” he said.

Four of the Scarlet’s bedrooms are not sea-facing, but ingenious “crow’s nests” sit on top of them to give guests the all-important sea view. Others are double-aspect so guests can enjoy sunlight all-day, with some sharing communal staircases with just one other room.

A giant copper-clad wall with a signature large square hole at the end is lit red at night and is probably the single, most defining feature of the building. It serves to separate the public and private areas of the hotel.

The land-facing elevation contains an effective mix of traditional Cornish stacked stone, zinc and Douglas fir, while the seaward side is unsurprisingly glass dominant, though rustic sleepers reclaimed from Plymouth dockyard provide an interesting contrast.

“We’ve never done a hotel before or a spa,” said Capel. “Most of our houses are bespoke and we do timber frame houses. But it has opened my eyes that you can do big buildings with timber frame.”
For Simon Baldwin, the Scarlet is as much an ethos as a hotel. “The brief we came up with is how do we want this hotel to make you feel? Not how big and how many rooms there are.”

To that end, the layout is specifically designed to encourage social interaction, with the option of dining at a communal table. “We wanted to encourage interaction,” he said.

Pre-teenage children aren’t encouraged – the facilities cater for adults, but Baldwin emphasised that the hotel was more about having the right attitude and values than age. “I hope it’s a hotel with a soul which lots of people will feel comfortable in. This is not about high fashion.”