Designed by Simon Conder and Chris Neve of Simon Conder
Associates, the Black Rubber Beach House has got to be one of the most unusual
homes that we have seen ever. Located on Dungeness beach in Kent, UK, the beach
house comes fully clad in black rubber as a waterproofing measure! The original
home had been a fisherman’s hut from the ’30 though it did receive a number of
extensions and changes over the year.
For the latest renovation, the architects replaced all of the
walls and stripped the home back to its wood framing. Before the façade of the home
was covered with stretched rubber skin, the home’s exterior and interior wall
were covered with spruce plywood. The architects claim that the idea behind the
unique project was to innovate within domestic architecture using low-cost
materials that also serve a real purpose for these structures.
The home itself features two large living rooms, a small
bath and bedroom and a guest bedroom that is fashioned out of a caravan parked right
next to the house. A wooden deck faces the beachside of the house and is separated
from the home via timber-framed glass walls that open into the dining room and kitchen.
The home’s “non-plan” schematic is also in keeping with the spirit
of the homes that populate Kent’s Dungeness Beach though the black rubber
covering kind of makes the home look rather more stylish than the “squatter architecture”
that the region has become known for.
The waterproofing elements not only
protect the home from the moist winds, they also allow the home to insulate
itself from the cold while getting additional heating inside without any extra
focus on heating.
