Bournemouth Pier Approach is a key public space at the seafront in Bournemouth, which is a key tourist destination. It is used by many people every day and at various times during the year festivals are held on this site including for example the Wheels Festival and the Air Show, where several 100,000 people can attend over a weekend. The seafront operations generate essential revenue streams for the Council. The open space therefore had to be adaptable and open, providing sufficient amenity and a high quality environment in both scenarios – day to day use and high impact use.The client brief was to create an adaptable, functional, high quality and world-class environment. This was achieved for example by detailed consideration of access and levels, provision of large open areas, integration of seating into landscape features, ability to completely drain and turn off the water feature for large events, use of hard wearing and durable materials with a high quality finish, and incorporation of discrete art features. The often harsh and saline environment including sand blowing off the beach was a key consideration in the design process.Pier Approach is one of the first sites to benefit from the detailed plans of the Seafront Strategy – an ambitious 20-year strategy to develop a world-class seafront for Bournemouth. The Seafront Strategy identifies opportunities to introduce better facilities for residents and visitors to enjoy, and help to secure and grow Bournemouth’s £462M tourist sector, which currently employs over 11,000 people.CEC Ltd and team delivered former Stage E to L services for this project having won the formal tender process for that work, after the initial concept designs were produced by Gillespies.
