Assignment 3 - research

East Beach Cafe - design and practical challenges

I really like the East Beach cafe..it appeals to my love of texture and modern sculpture and that said, came to mind for this particular assignment. I'd seen pictures of the outside when it was first opened but this assignment was the first time I had seen in it for real and experienced sitting inside with a welcome cup of coffee.

P906: F8 @ 1/160  21mm  ISO 100

This  seaside café, sat on a long,thin promenade site, has a very interesting design background.

Littlehampton is a quiet almost reserved seaside resort. Before the cafe was built, its seafront was mainly deserted shingle.There was an existing promenade kiosk but only usable in good weather. When a planning application turned up to replace it with an 'artless and ugly' new building, local residents Jane Wood and her husband Peter Murray took direct action. They acquired the site and then by chance came across Thomas Heatherwick at a party at the Goodwood Sculpture Estate. What came out of this meeting was the unique East Beach Cafe.
 
Heatherwick and his design team set out to create a new café, a 80-seater, 5.5 metre tall restaurant building  on the long, narrow site of the existing seafront kiosk - 'a building that would not only become a popular local cafe  and attraction, but a place of what they called 'prospect and refuge' with generous views of the sea and a cosy atmosphere whatever the weather'. (1) He saw his challenge to ‘build a functional and durable structure on a tight budget,where you can eat a Mr. Whippy or drink Dom Perignon'. He said that the building was designed to fit with Littlehampton’s ‘raw beauty.’ (1)

My challenge was to show the important features of the building photographically. 

So here we have a long, thin self-supporting structure made out of ' layers of patinated steel shaped like OS map contours or tectonic plates made solid and slipping sideways'. (2) Its profile is derived from both wanting the building to look natural and weathered but also from a practical need to invisably accommodate the roller shutter boxes. Inside the café’s interior is rather like a shell  with walls sprayed with a soft-to-the-touch insulating foam often used in barn conversions.



So, how to capture the design concept,its actual impact in terms of how the space was designed to be used, how it was being used and its effectiveness as a usable space in photograhic images ? I wanted to bring out the shape, structure, texture and colour of the building as well as illustrating how the space was being used.

Certain challenges were very apparent at the start of the photo shoot i.e. 

• Position of the sun for exterior shots - the effect of the light and shadow was crucial to bring out the contours of the building.
• Position of the building i.e. right in front of a carpark creating difficulties for images taken of the back of the building.
• Working around the toy train ride that stopped outside the  cafe and, of course the walkers, cyclists and skateboarders enjoying the hot sunshine and the seaside promenade.

Later I discovered a really limited factor and one more crucial to the assignment i.e. the limited permission to take photos inside the cafe itself. Cafe staff were happy to have me taking images provided they did not include members of the public. Not easy in a cafe ! The lighting conditions really required a tripod as I could  sense the use of a flash being too intrusive. In the end I had to compromise and used my iphone camera to get the candid interior shots I really wanted.


So, how to capture the design concept and its actual impact in terms of how the space was designed to be used, how it was being used and its effectiveness as a usable space in photograhic images ?

Certain challenges were very apparent at the start of the photo shoot i.e. 

• Position of the sun for exterior shots - the effect of the light and shadow was crucial to bring out the contours of the building.
• Position of the building i.e. right in front of a carpark creating difficulties for images taken of the back of the building.
• Working around the toy train ride that stopped outside the  cafe and, of course the walkers, cyclists and skateboarders enjoying the hot sunshine and the seaside promenade.

Later I discovered a really limited factor and one more crucial to the assignment i.e. the limited permission to take photos inside the cafe itself. Cafe staff were happy to have me taking images provided they did not include members of the public. Not easy in a cafe ! The lighting conditions really required a tripod as I could  sense the use of a flash being too intrusive. In the end I had to compromise and used my iPhone camera to get the candid shots I really wanted.

(1) www.eastbeachcafe.co.uk
(2) Bayley,S. ( 2007 ) Fresh seafood served here. The Guardian 10 June 2007