Another design competition also with its own controversies was Littlehampton Town Council’s ‘Stage by the Sea’ competition. Whilst not a seaside shelter, the designs were similar in their size and locations to that of a shelter. The proposed cost included in the brief was £40,000 and was to design a shelter and performance space.
However the controversies that overshadowed this competition were the thoughts and feelings around the winners BFLS. BFLS alongside their client Soundform, produced a series of temporary performance venues earlier in the year, and their competition entry was a modified version of this product. Other architects who entered were disappointed that the council chose what could be considered a ‘standard product’. This kind of entry undermines the time, money and effort that other designers put into entering the competition. Competitions, although a great way to gather a variety of interesting proposals at little cost to the council, cost the architects and designers as Winchester-based finalist Dan Brill said: ‘There was absolutely no point in hosting a design competition and Littlehampton should not have wasted the relatively significant amounts of time, effort and money that small, struggling firms set aside for speculative projects such as this.’
The winning design is shown below, the designers now known as Flanagan Lawrence.
(Architects Journal, 2015)
Some of the runners up included designs by NEX, Ian McChesney, Dan Brill, KWY and Asif Khan and their proposals are shown below.
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