Camber Beach Houses | Stuart Martin

Situated between the sea and the county’s only sand dunes a designated SSSI site, the stunning beach houses offer spectacular views of the coast and unparalleled access to the beach. Architect Stuart Martin of WAM design, set out to minimize the houses’ impact on the environment, both visually and physically. This informed the design and choice of materials throughout; many recycled and sustainable materials were used for this project including Kerto timber structural frames, Kebony timber cladding boards over a insulated concrete formwork cast-in-place. Visually the architects wanted to create a seamless continuity in the building’s structure to echo the natural colour and smoothness of the dunes, so that the buildings blend and disappear into the surroundings. Kebony wood provides the visual requirements of the houses and brings the strength of tropical wood without causing environmental degradation.
The house is designed to be flood resilient with a insulated concrete ground floor construction and a simple cross laminate timber structure to form the upper/roof construction. This also helped to reduce the environmental build impact on the site with a relatively speedy construction and many timber structure components fabricated off site. Access to the site was across the public beach so logistics were always tricky, balancing weather conditions with public safety.
The building is heavily insulated and utilises a ground source heat pump system to provide underfloor heating in the cooler months. Careful consideration had to be given to all materials specified that they would be suitable for a marine environment.

The project won the RICS Residential Design Award 2017, East Sussex Heritage Trust Award 2016, Suerface Design Award 2016