Country/Region: UK – United Kingdom, Kent
Name: The Shingle House
Scenery: shingle beach of Dungeness near Romney Marsh
Lodging: house
Architecture: modern
Completion: 10.2010 (open for booking)
Architect: NORD Architecture, Glasgow
Press/Publication: ./.
Awards: RIBA award 2011 (Royal Institute of British Architects)
Homepage: living-architecture.co.uk
Special Features: The Shingle House is sited on one of the most unusual and poetic landscapes in England, on the shingle beach of Dungeness near Romney Marsh.
The vast beach is empty save for a random collection of fisherman’s huts (many of them owned by artists, including – most famously – the late film-maker Derek Jarman), two lighthouses, the terminus of a miniature coastal steam train and in the far distance, the dramatic form of a nuclear power station. The entire beach is classified as a nature reserve and is filled with unusual flora and is a haven for a plethora of birdlife.
Living Architecture’s house is by a young Scottish practice, NORD Architecture, who responded to the natural drama of the site with a simple monumental black house, finished in tarred black shingles on the outside and in a beautiful palette of concrete and timber within.