Drawing
Birnbeck Island
Weston-super-Mare,
Masterplan for Birnbeck Island, developed for the RIBA–Urban Splash competition on the regeneration of the Grade II* historic pier. The design features a curved plinth connecting the island’s various architectures and a series of towers with large windows at their tops, facing the sea
Topics
Genres
work
Themes
forms
Typology
hotel
Intervention types
renovation
Stages
unbuilt
Places
weston-super-mare
Work
Antonino Cardillo
The only thing that consoles us for our miseries is diversion. And yet it is the greatest of our miseries.
— Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1670)
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.
worldarchitecturenews.com, London, 22 Jan. 2008
Images
Testimony
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], Royal Institute of British Architects, London, 20 Dec. 2007 [English]
Place
Data
- Time: Design (Oct 2007)
- Place: Birnbeck Island, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, UK
- Area: 9,000 m² (eleven storeys)
Credits
- Architecture: Antonino Cardillo
- Client: Royal Institute of British Architects / Urban Splash
- Translation: Charles Searson
- Competition jury: George Ferguson, Jeremy Gould, Neil Cossons, Ian Knight, Charles McCann, Elfan Ap Rees, David Turner, Jonathan Falkingham, Jason Collard
Historiography
2019
Architecture of the unconscious
Akshaya Muralikumar
The island has a story. It has its birth from the existing piers and buildings that were left solitary in the middle of the water, giving a face of multitude breaking the existent solitary views.
re-thinkingthefuture.com, New Delhi, 10 August 2019 (en, it)
Exhibitions
2008 – 2007
Архитектурный диалог 2008
Артиндекс
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 Артиндекс Архитектурный диалог 2008 exhibition at the Центральный музей связи имени А. С. Попова in St Petersburg.
Центральный музей связи имени А. С. Попова, St Petersburg, – (en, it, ru)
Birnbeck Island Competition
RIBA Competitions Office
Curator Linda Roberts exhibited the presentation boards of Cardillo’s Birnbeck Island project, submitted for the RIBA–Urban Splash competition, as part of the projects exhibition held at The Winter Gardens in Weston-super-Mare.
The Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare, – (en, it)
Bibliography
2019 – 2007
- Akshaya Muralikumar, ‘10 projects of Antonino Cardillo every architect must visit!’, re-thinkingthefuture.com, New Delhi, 10 Aug. 2019.
- Stephen Hodge, ‘Bring life back to Birnbeck Island and Piers’, The Masterplan, Sternberg Press, London, Sept. 2012, fig. 13.
- Susanne Beyer, ‘Hochstapler: Römische Ruinen’, Der Spiegel, no. 27/12, Hamburg, 2 July 2012, pp. 3, 121‑123; spiegel.de, 2 July 2012.
- Antonino Cardillo, ‘Values transcending time’, build Das Architekten-Magazin, no. 4/10, interviewed by Ralf Ferdinand Broekman, Olaf Winkler, Wuppertal, Aug. 2010, pp. 41‑47.
- Antonino Cardillo, ‘Birnbeck Island’, 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’, Landscape Design, no. 33, Dalian, May 2009, pp. 96‑99.
- Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi, ‘Troppi architetti e pochi lavori’, L’Arca, no. 237, dir. Cesare Maria Casati, Milan, June 2008, pp. 72‑73.
- World Architecture Community, ‘بوابة للعمارة’, El Beit, Cairo, May 2008, p. 13.
- Antonino Cardillo, ‘Stratificazione di significati’, L’Arca, no. 235, dir. Cesare Maria Casati, Milan, April 2008, p. 99.
- Antonino Cardillo, ‘Island living in Somerset’, worldarchitecturenews.com, ed. Samy Mansour, London, 22 Jan. 2008.
- Linda Roberts, Birnbeck Island competition [email], RIBA, London, 20 Dec. 2007.