Birnbeck Island

Weston‑Super‑Mare, 24 October 2007

Masterplan for the RIBA-Urban Splash regeneration competition of the grade II* listed Birnbeck Pier

Interpretation

Antonino Cardillo

Like a naval vessel, a curved basement embraces the diverse elements of Birnbeck Island. Constructed five metres beneath the main pier, the basement is accessible from a ramp near the gate of the island. Its sequence of spaces links all the buildings on the island from below. The vessel design counterpoints the new tall buildings, in plan oriented following the orthogonal reference system created through existing signs. The method of occupying the void synthesises diverse schemes: tower, linear, cantilever and gate. In each of their narrow frontages, at the top, a big window marks the seascape creating a panorama like multitude of lighthouses.

This text was first published on worldarchitecturenews.com,[↗] London, 22 Jan. 2008.

Eugenius Birch, Hans Price, Birnbeck Pier, Weston‑Super‑Mare, 1866. Photography: Anonymous, 1890

Data

Time: October 2007 (design)
Place: Birnbeck Island, Weston‑Super‑Mare, Somerset, UK
Area: 9,000 m² (eleven storeys)
Typology: pier

Credits

Architecture: Antonino Cardillo
Client: RIBA / Urban Splash
Translation: Charles Searson

The competition judges

George Ferguson
Jeremy Gould
Neil Cossons
Ian Knight
Charles McCann
Cllr Elfan Ap Rees
David Turner
Jonathan Falkingham
Jason Collard

Anthology

2007

Birnbeck Island competition

Linda Roberts

Your design was one of those identified in the first round of judging as having good potential and thus deserving of further consideration. The judges thought it was a very good and quite unique response, one of those schemes that people either really liked or did not like, which is sometimes the case with schemes featuring a strong characteristic. However, it did ignore the headland, and I would say that this was a factor that worked against it.

[email], RIBA, London, 20 December 2007. (en, it)

Exhibitions

2008–2007

Architectural Dialog 04

Nikolai Fedotov, Sergei Kovaliov (cur.)

Curators Nikolai Fedotov and Sergei Kovaliov exhibited three boards on the projects Canto Sospeso, Let There Be More Light, Ellipse 1501 House and Birnbeck Island, part of the Artindex ‘Architectural Dialogue 04’ exhibition at the Central Communication Museum A.S. Popov of St. Petersburg.

Popov Central Museum of Communications, St-Petersburg, 1 March–30 November 2008.

Exhibition of Schemes

Linda Roberts (cur.)

Curator Linda Roberts displays the boards of the Birnbeck Island project, part of the RIBA/Urban Splash ‘Exhibition of Schemes’ at The Winter Gardens in Weston-Super-Mare.

The Winter Gardens, Weston-Super-Mare, 6–7 December 2007.

Publications

2012–2008

Stephen Hodge, ‘Bring life back to Birnbeck Island and Piers’ (pdf), in The Masterplan, Sternberg Press, London, Sept. 2012, fig. 13.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Taking a position’ (pdf), build Das Architekten-Magazin, no. 4/10, ed. Ralf Ferdinand Broekman, Olaf Winkler, Wuppertal, Aug. 2010, pp. 41.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Birnbeck Island’ (pdf), in New Concept Architecture, vol. II, ed. Xing Rihan, Rihan, Hong Kong, June 2010, pp. 230‑233.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘定格于时间之中——Birnbeck岛建筑群’ (pdf), Landscape Design, no. 33, ed. LD, Dalian, May 2009, pp. 96‑99.
World Architecture Community, ‘بوابة للعمارة’ (pdf), El Beit, Cairo, May 2008, p. 13.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Stratificazione di significati’ (pdf), L’Arca, no. 235, dir. Cesare Maria Casati, Milan, April 2008, p. 99.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Birnbeck Island’, Architectural Dialog 08 [exhibition], Artindex, St-Petersburg, March–Nov. 2008.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Island living in Somerset’,[↗] worldarchitecturenews.com, London, 22 Jan. 2008.