Outside of Malibu, few architects ever get the chance to build houses on the beach. Britain may be an island nation but we like to keep the sea at a distance, enjoying the drama but not getting too close. Unless, that is, there is some wholesome recreation to be gained: promenades, piers and beach huts form the architectural vocabulary of the traditional British summer, the solid frame within which the sea and sand ebb and flow.

RH Partnership Architects is making a very contemporary contribution to this language in Brighton: a new venue for beach sports that thrusts out into the shingle east of the town's only remaining pier. The site was once a fairground, Peter Pan's Playground, but the delights of the carousel will soon be replaced by the altogether more energetic pursuits of volleyball, beach soccer, beach rugby and footvolley.

The client is a local family firm, Yellowave, which became the preferred bidder for the area's development following an open competition held by Brighton and Hove City Council in 2004. When completed, the new centre may become a training facility for Olympic volleyball teams, but the primary ambition is to create a resource for the local community in a setting that will be as exciting as it is invigorating.

The front deck area of the Yellowave development

The centre of the development is a sand games pitch about half the size of a football pitch. Adjoining this, a café with changing facilities and a family forecourt will be open from 10am-10pm every day in all weathers. One side of the forecourt will be defined by a 4m-high boulder wall for climbers, while the pitch will be surrounded by a galvanized mesh fence held up by chunky timber posts. Other than the boulder wall and the fence itself, everything above the slab and sand will be made of timber, an obvious choice for a construction on the beach where timber is a recognisable part of the salt-encrusted palette.

RH Partnership are using timber-based structurally insulated panels (SIPs) to build the café in order that a dry building shell can be erected in minimal time, an especially important consideration for a sea-facing site during the winter months.

The SIPs are lowered into position on the site

The structure was programmed to be craned into place, put together and sheathed in four days, after which work on the internal services and finishes can proceed in relative security at a slightly less breakneck pace. As well as ensuring construction quality, the off-site manufacture of the SIPs worked out cheaper, in this instance, than an on-site stick-build. The SIPs system specified by project architect David Sweeney is produced by Innovare Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of building contractor Osborne Ltd.

The system is based on the Jabsip Structural Insulated Panel Technology that Osborne first developed for the domestic market, a factory-laminated sandwich of oriented strand board and expanded polystyrene insulation. All apertures for windows and doors are factory-cut to ensure very tight engineering tolerances, thereby achieving a level of air-tightness well in excess of Part L requirements. As Innovare will effectively supply the completed structural shell, responsibility for the quality of the build stretches all the way from the factory floor to the beach.

Cedar cladding

The timber system for the structural shell of the building is complemented by western red cedar for the external weather-boarding, pitch pine for the floors and treated timber decking for the family forecourt. The decking will be plain rather than corrugated board to reduce green build up and so offer better long-term walking conditions. As this is not a good location for wet trades, the interior of the building will be dry-lined.    David Sweeney and his colleagues at RH Partnership Architects considered various options before deciding to specify vertical Canadian western red cedar for the external finish. A more local choice would have been coppiced sweet chestnut from the considerable forests of Sussex but they did not feel that this weathered well. Cedar is often used horizontally but this also has weathering problems, especially staining beneath windows. The attractive use of long lengths of vertical cladding at the Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College eventually won the day.
As the site is positioned directly below the Madeira Terraces, a network of paths climbing steeply to the high promenade, the view from above was considered in some detail. However, the sports centre is unlikely to blend perfectly into the beach: this is Brighton not Blackpool and the sandy volleyball pitch will contrast with the shingle that defines Brighton's beaches. Thirteen hundred tonnes of “Olympic standard” blended sand will have to be shipped in from Kent before anyone can safely throw a ball at Yellowave. It is left to the café roof to provide a visual link to the beach as it will be covered in 80mm of local shingle within which local maritime planting will be encouraged. Although not designed to be a 'green roof' – after all, little grows on the beach itself – the shingle will help to provide good weather protection.

All the apertures in the panels are cut-out in the factory, ready for joinery to be inserted on site

After spending millions on the regeneration of the beach front west of the pier, the £500,000 investment at Yellowave is an important step in the local council's plans to improve the rather dilapidated environment to the east. It is hoped the sports centre will draw people both to play and to watch – there will be room for 3,000 spectators if temporary stands are erected for special events – and so bring new life to this crucial boundary between the beach and the town. The architect's design is minimal and discreet, a subtle imprint in a transitional environment, that makes good use of timber to define a building form in a landscape where timber is welcome. We can only hope that Yellowave fulfils its potential and attracts the leaping and lunging people of Brighton, come rain or shine. 

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