Replacement Coastal Dwelling
Designing a new home on the coast is an exercise in making the most of an extraordinary opportunity while carefully navigating a complex set of constraints. For this coastal site, our proposals replace a dated and deteriorating chalet bungalow with a contemporary three-storey home designed to embrace its exceptional coastal setting.
Before considering a replacement dwelling, we always explore whether an existing property can be retained, extended and adapted. On a flood-risk site, this can bring significant environmental and planning advantages, as well as allowing an existing building to be given a new lease of life. However, the financial, construction and regulatory implications of refurbishment can sometimes make a carefully considered replacement dwelling the more appropriate solution.
Here, extensive analysis of the existing building, flood risk, planning policy, construction costs and environmental requirements led us towards a new-build approach. The challenge was then to create a home that responds positively to the increasingly demanding requirements for new dwellings in coastal flood-risk areas, while remaining comfortable within its surroundings and, crucially, making the most of the views.
The resulting proposal is a three-storey home arranged around the way the family will use it. The ground floor accommodates the principal living spaces, including the living room, snug, kitchen, dining and utility areas, together with garaging. Bedrooms, lounge, gym and laundry occupy the first floor, while the main bedroom and a private roof terrace sit at second-floor level, providing an elevated position from which to enjoy the sea and horizon.
The architecture is deliberately simple, composed of three distinct elements: a monolithic brick volume containing the main accommodation; an inset, timber-clad upper storey; and a freestanding two-storey timber balcony extending towards the sea.
The balcony is more than an architectural feature. Its generous overhang provides valuable external space for enjoying the coastal outlook from the first-floor bedrooms and lounge while helping to control solar gain to the extensive south-facing glazing. In summer it provides shade and reduces overheating; in winter, when the sun is lower, it allows solar energy to warm the interior.
Sustainability is embedded throughout the design, rather than added as a collection of technologies. High levels of insulation, an airtight construction, substantial internal thermal mass and triple-glazed, solar-coated windows work together to create a highly efficient building envelope. Air-source heat pumps provide underfloor heating and hot water, while photovoltaic panels and battery storage generate and store electricity for use throughout the day and night.
The project is also an example of the importance of understanding the planning and environmental context from the very beginning. On challenging coastal sites, successful architecture depends not simply on designing a beautiful house, but on understanding flood risk, planning policy, neighbouring context, construction and the aspirations of the client as one connected process.
Having recently submitted the proposals for planning permission, we are now working through the detailed discussions around the proposed raised floor levels with the Environment Agency. Subject to a successful planning outcome, construction is anticipated to begin in spring 2028.
For us, projects such as this demonstrate the value of bringing architectural and planning expertise together from the outset.
The most rewarding coastal homes are those where the constraints of the site are understood not as obstacles, but as part of the design opportunity.
