Festival House, designed by de Rijke Marsh Morgan, Blackpool Seafront at Tower headland, Lancashire, UK
Festival House, designed by de Rijke Marsh Morgan, where a short but perky gold tower rises above a long, low plinth in pinkish brick. It treads a line between civic pride and Blackpool's heritage of flamboyant trash, what de Rijke calls "B-movie architecture". It has echoes of such serious precedents as Frank Lloyd Wright, but also 1950s motels. Its uses are a restaurant (currently awaiting appointment of an operator), an information centre and a register office for weddings. Most people, says de Rijke, "regard register office weddings as anticlimactic alternatives to churches", but here the aim was to create "a sense of occasion". So, compressed into what is a small building, the design makes a ceremonial route with as much event as possible. First there is a lobby with a window on to the sea; then a lift; then a waiting space with a balcony from which wider views can be had; then the room for the main event that, high and angular and orientated towards an altar-like table, has a churchy feel. Beyond the table a glazed cleft is filled with a view of the Blackpool Tower, which could be seen, if you fancy, as a bit of boy-girl symbolism appropriate to the occasion.
Size: 3413px × 5120px
Location: Blackpool, Lancashire, UK
Photo credit: © Cernan Elias / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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