Artists Design Statement

The Roker Pods have grown out of a response to the unique natural and industrial heritage of Sunderland’s coastline.

We were immediately drawn to the formations of rare ‘cannonball rocks’ which spill from the cliffs onto the beach and saw them as an ideal starting point for the development of a unique multifunctional design solution capable of revitalising and enhancing interest in Roker as a 21st century model resort. 

We felt it was essential that any new structures should aspire to the highest contemporary design standards and have therefore developed our concepts with a zero carbon aspiration in mind. We have used materials and an aesthetic which reflects the heritage of the site and adjacent marine industries. The pods are constructed largely from heavy timbers and constructed with boat building technologies to provide a robust weather resistant surface which will ultimately be enhanced by the inevitable weathering which occurs beside such turbulent seas.

The project envisaged at this time will create a pilot series of mobile multifunctional eco-pods which will be added to sustainably over time as the resort further develops. We felt that the pods should populate the coastline in the same way that people do: moving up and down the promenade and spilling onto the beach; and like a crowd constantly changing in their distribution and the activities they are ‘engaged’ in.

                                     “Excuse me could you tell me where the toilets are?” “Err... Well I knew where they were last week but... Oh yes there they are over there beside the resort information pod”
 
On a more serious note we believe that one way of keeping a place interesting, current and critically ‘in use’ is by keeping it changing, growing and developing in response to an evolving need, a special event or function: if it is in some sense ‘new’ on each visit.

Mobile, Multifunctional, multipurpose, off grid, modular, amphibious, natural, and ecological were some of our key watch-words in developing the concepts presented here. We see the structures as an ‘event’ in and of themselves which will cause visitors to travel to Roker specifically to see the ‘cannonball pods‘ in a natural setting of marram grass and wildflowers.

Each of the pods is designed to be prefabricated as a modular system allowing additional pods of  similar or different sizes to be added by means of a simple bolt-on connecting collar to others for specific events or as a business expands. Similarly there will be a series of different plug-in triple glazed self cleaning glass windows with timber shutters, roof lights, solar and photovoltaic panels and entrances which can easily be removed, exchanged added to or blocked as needs dictate.

Additional or larger turbines, battery banks and water tanks can be added or omitted as needs dictate and the air cooling system can be modified for different applications. Some pods will be fitted with solar heated showers for bathers.

Retail pods will have a variety of standardised fittings from counters to shelves and hooks for beach toys etc.

Signage across the site will feature standardised fonts and colours creating a sense of continuity across the seafront.

The pods are designed to be watertight using boat-building technologies and will therefore be adaptable for use as floating buoy cafe’s, ‘islands’ with glass bottoms for recreational divers and swimmers or as contemporary bathing machines with lowering pontoons.

One future application is for a very slow moving electrically self powered mobile restaurant which over the course of a meal will provide changing views for diners from the promenade and travel along the pier to the light house (weather providing)

The pods aim to provide a vision of a possible future: one which works with the environment to create an educational recreational facility which enhances well being and promotes a different set of values and lifestyles.

By night the pods provide illuminations: sparkling with LED’s and directional spot and subtle flood lighting inserted into and on the timber surface of the spheres. The aim is to dispose of the need for high level on-grid sodium street-lighting and generate all the power that is needed to create a more intimate ambience evocative of perhaps warmer climes in the north of England.   This will extend the ‘life’ of the resort into the evenings with street style cafe bars, board walks and restaurants populated by a diverse population including families who have spent the day enjoying a range of activities facilitated by the Roker Pods.

The pods are moved by means of an electrically powered tractor which can easily tow the pods along the promenade and onto the beach for study sessions for groups beside the rock pools.

We hope to help spark a renaissance in British Holidays and recreation along our coastline and change perceptions of what they offer and can be. Roker could provide a natural oasis on the fringe of the city.

Education has always been central to the envisioned uses for the pods: both for organised groups of school children and students studying marine life, local heritage and outdoor sporting and water-sports activities. 

There is also an essential informal level of education provided for: The pods give all visitors a direct experience of contemporary design and will hopefully help promote desirability around it and the use of ecological technologies from wind turbines to waterless composting toilets. We envisage Roker becoming renowned as a zero carbon study centre hosting conferences which place it and Sunderland firmly on the world stage for forward thinking and innovation in sustainable resorts development.

Stuart Bastik 2009

Artist Pages:

Stuart Bastik
Maddi Nicholson
The Nicholson Bastik/Art Gene Partnership