Trinity Experimental Station, Dungeness
Following plenty of old fashioned hard work and skilled craftsmanship by our contractors over the summer, we hope you will share our enjoyment of these in-progress shots of the three new eco-buildings on the site of the former Trinity Experimental Station in Dungeness: the Crosley, Library and Workshop.
The landscape at Dungeness is unique: it is one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world, and as a ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’, it is home to a rich and diverse community of plant and wildlife. It is dotted with structures ranging from ramshackle timber huts and lighthouses to abandoned military structures as well as a Nuclear Power station, which ironically promotes the surrounding ecology as waste hot water outflow enriches the sea bed, in turn attracting seabirds from miles around.
The coastal climate is harsh with an often unrelenting sea breeze and the treeless landscape providing little in the way of shelter. With the crackling of gunfire at the distant Military Firing Range and the occasional whistle from the local Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch narrow-gauge railway, the site phenomenology is rich.
The Trinity Experimental Station occupies a narrow strip of land that runs between the Old Lighthouse and the seashore. Used as a facility for testing marine apparatus – from engines to anti-corrosive paint finishes – the site is home to a number of inherited structures including a small railway, a radio tower and a building used to test Fog Horns. Fenced off from the surrounding landscape, the shingle habitat contained within is protected by English Nature as home to some of the country’s rarest plant species.
51% Studios were appointed to design three new buildings, with interiors by Johnson Naylor, and to oversee the development of the existing site into a number of individual artist’s studios and workshops. The Crosley Building is the largest of the new buildings and replaces the double volume corrugated shed which was at the entrance of the site. The three interlocking volumes reconnect the building’s scale to the existing structures, whilst creating airy volumes within. Frameless vertical sliding windows arranged on axes focus on contextual icons – the lighthouses, the courtyard, the distant horizon. Externally, a locally sourced rough sawn cedar rainscreen is durable and sustainable, and will age to soft silver finish.
The Library is a small existing masonry structure which once housed the generator for the site. The worn concrete and masonry interiors are retained as a reminder of the buildings industrial heritage, whilst the exterior is overclad with cedar in a matrix referencing and expressing the building’s original structural features.
The Workshop provides space for woodworking and framing. It relates in form and function to the archetypal industrial building with north-facing zinc-clad lights. A glazed corner window frames a stunning view of the coastguard tower with the Channel beyond. The workshop also houses the air source heat pump to provide heat and hot water to the site.
51% Studios’ response to sustainability meant that minimizing the negative environmental impact of construction was a key factor of the design. The new units are constructed as rafts directly onto the existing hard-standing and use pre-cast structural elements whereever possible. All three buildings are super-insulated: the Sea Loft and Generator have shingle roofs to minimize visual impact and improve on thermal mass. All window openings are triple glazed and achieve a u-value of 0.81. The proposed buildings have been designed to achieve Level 4–5 in the Code for Sustainable Homes.
Read about how the concrete slab was recycled here or link to the portfolio page
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