Suttons Beach Pavilion

For more than 80 years, the unpretentious Art Deco structure that was the Suttons Beach Pavilion embraced every eventuality, serving its community as a humble and much-loved piece of large scale, public furniture.

In collaboration with Hogg and Lamb, RPS Group and Frank Turquoise

The original pavilion was equally supportive of the lone bather entwined in its balustrade revelling in a post swim reflection, or as host for a civic event, with the visiting masses huddled on every windowsill, chimney ledge, awning and stair tread.

Our proposal offers a contemporary replacement, one which exemplifies the same robust, humble, hardworking ethic, and community spirit, of the lost original.

Info

Client:

City of Moreton Bay / City Lab

Location:

Land of Ningy Ningy people
Redcliffe

Size:

1320 m²

Collaborators:

Hogg and Lamb, RPS Group, Frank Turquoise

Status:

completed

Typology:

Public

Quotes

There is no difference between building a piece of furniture and a building.

Jean Prouvé

Lightweight open decks facing windswept coastal edges are inevitably infilled, creating additional, unwanted layers between the inhabitant and the environment. When you first see a poorly remediated edge condition beside a windswept beach, it feels like a missed opportunity. Repeating this mistake has become an architectural farce on our shoreline. A hard edge with protected, flexible, large-scale fenestration is what is needed to inhabit these places well.

m3architecture

Transforming walls, plinths, sills, planters and balustrades into habitable edges, the building becomes a large-scale piece of public furniture. Defining moments include an 80m+ long bench seat embracing the gentle curve of the cove, and tiered seating galleries forming both the North and South facades.

Suttons Beach Pavilion 1953. Source: QldPics

The Pavilion in 1937. Source: MBRC image #000\000417 (AI edited)

The new pavilion also protects a family-oriented park from Redcliffe’s incessant easterly’s, creates a new promenade, returns cliff landscapes to their original condition, and opens views to the historic cliff stair, whilst providing change facilities, amenities, and a set of new food and beverage tenants.