Beach hut sales surge following heatwave

Estate agency Boydens has reported selling 16 beach huts in Essex so far this year, with demand accelerating during the summer heatwave period.

The sales have been concentrated in Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, as well as High Wall, Low Wall, The Leas, and Southcliff.

Zenna Everett, sales and lettings negotiator at Boydens’ Frinton-on-Sea office, said some properties received accepted offers within hours of coming to market. “The level of interest in acquiring beach huts has gone through the roof this summer,” she said. “People like the convenience of a beach hut as it gives them a base, somewhere to relax and to store their things."

Asking prices across the region range from aroud £10,000 to £60,000, depending on location. Buyers are also liable for annual licence fees payable to the relevant local authority. The agency reported that most purchases have been made by families from inland Essex towns including Brentwood, Chelmsford, and Romford, seeking coastal access for children and grandchildren.

Five transactions completed in August, with additional sales progressing in September.

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Friday Finery: Studio / Bunkhouse

This week's splendid finery is suggested by Shedworking reader Benjamin Schneider and is the studio-bunkhouse designed by Cutler Anderson Architects on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and which is the recipient of an AIA National Small Projects Award. Lots more atmospheric photos at the link above.

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Coffice

After 20 years of writing about garden offices I thought I'd heard every portmanteau description (I still like 'shoffice') but in the i newspaper this week there's a new example, the coffice, so-called because the owner describes it as very narrow and a bit like a coffin (pictured above). It's actually very nice inside. Read more at 'We built a £13,500 garden office. It saves £500 in monthly mortgage costs' where you can see some interior shots.

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master, bespoke garden rooms and offices designed, manufactured and installed throughout the UK 

 

 

Amol Rajan: shedworker

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Having left the BBC, my former editor from my time at The Independent newspaper Amol Rajan is building up a new online company called the Amol Rajan Connection. And he's doing it from an orange shed in his back garden as these shots from his instagram account reveal.

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amol Rajan (@amolrajanconnection)

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Friday Finery: two cabin festivals

Two festival fineries this week for you, the first Le Festival des Cabanes which is an annual openair architecture festival held in the Sources du Lac d'Annecy region of Haute-Savoie, France including the municipalities of Chevaline, Val de Chaise, Doussard, Giez, Lathuile, Saint-Ferréol and Faverges-Seythenex. Showcasing a range of international architects and their wooden cabins (some of which are pictured above), it's open until November 6.

Finishing on September 28 is the fifth iteration of the Villa Medici's Festival des Cabanes at its home in  Rome. These comprise six original creations like the one pictured below.

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information 

Baumhaus Office

Baumhaus Office is a remarkable build from Munich-based Opposite Office which really puts the garden in garden office. It's essentially a titchy one-square-meter cabin halfway up a tree on the campus of Bauhaus-Universität Weimar which optimistically is designed for up to two or three architects ("the treehouse was calculated with safety factors generous enough to satisfy both physics and bureaucracy" say the designers). Features include a skylight which has a marvellous view into the canopy above. Lots more photos at the link above.

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master, bespoke garden rooms and offices designed, manufactured and installed throughout the UK 

  

    

 

 

Studio Flat garden office

An excellent case study from Malvern Garden Buildings focusing on the Studio Flat model owned by chef and writer James Strawbridge who uses it mostly as a garden office, but also as a gym, art studio, and general family relaxation zone. Here's what he says:

“I always wanted it to be multifunctional, but it has become even more versatile than I expected. It’s a rowing room, home-education classroom, editing suite, art studio and a place for banjo lessons. It feels like a proper extension of our home and gives us space for creativity, fitness, music, art, work and mental wellbeing. For me, it’s primarily somewhere to work and create. I can switch off by playing music or using the rowing machine, but it’s mostly a calm, productive space.”

You can read the rest of the interview and see plenty of interior and exterior images via the link above. 

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by Booths Garden Studios, the UK's No.1 supplier of zero maintenance and portable garden studios