Project description:
CABÜ by the Sea is a seafront holiday and showroom village in the seaside town of St. Mary’s Bay in Kent. The holiday site, having stood derelict since 2009, has been invigorated with 13 architecturally designed and structurally engineered energy efficient 1, 2 & 3 bedroom modular timber CABÜ cabins carefully dispersed around the 10 acre landscape. Whilst achieving buildings regulations compliance for new dwellings, the lightweight prefabricated solution of glulam frame with timber composite insulated panels provide high aesthetics married with a variety of external coverings for walls from timber to brick, and for the roof from timber, slate and corrugated metal which explore customised individuality. Suspended timber floors and helical screw piles minimise impact to the environmental sensitive nature of the site and double glazed crittal style aluminium windows and doors provide a modern twist to the old style. Enhancing the seaside setting whilst also providing local opportunities was important to the client along with minimising the environmental impact so the design attributes of high energy efficiency with high performing insulation, minimal waste and noise due to offsite manufacture, lightweight structure mitigating pollution from site plant, suspended timber floors on piles eliminating concrete and flatpack distribution so fewer deliveries all contribute to the low environmental impact. The thread that ties all these buildings together is the modular aesthetic designed to be the constant pallet of materials creating the structural form whilst allowing the optionality of external finishes for bespoke choices. With these high quality easy to construct buildings, all that remains is to experience their beauty.