JaK Studio completes its latest project the ‘Spy Glass’ beach hut in Eastbourne. The award-winning architectural and design practice is amongst five winners of an international architectural design competition to create iconic bespoke beach huts to rejuvenate the coast in Devonshire Ward.
The idea for the ‘Spy Glass’ was to build a structure that has all the nostalgia of an original beach hut with a new physical form that would pay homage to the classic beach hut - an iconic symbol of the British seaside.
The Spy Glass is built on a recessed turntable allowing the transparent ‘picture window’ of the hut to be turned like traditional slot binoculars – this can be rotated in a 180-degree direction, via remote control, to face the sun, seascape or the bright lights of Eastbourne Pier, ‘reacting’ to daily life around it.
At the promenade end of the hut, there is a timber clad entrance door with an overhang formed by the cantilevered daybed inside. This cantilever has 2 port hole windows and an external shower head. The adaptability of the Spy Glass allows the hut can be used as a private beach hut.
JaK Studio set about designing the beach hut using a combination of robust nautical materials. The hut sits on a heavy-duty vehicle turntable which enables it to rotate from east to west. The Spy Glass measurements are based on a traditional beach hut, with typical dimensions of 2 meters wide x 3 meters long x 3 meters high.
The Spy Glass will be available to visit and rent as event space.
