Wimshust Pelleriti completes a small but ingenious piece of maritime infrastructure on a Devon estuary
Briefed to construct a small boathouse on a steep-sided bank of the River Yealm estuary in south Devon, architect Wimshurst Pelleriti developed an ingenious solution in which a galvanised steel hoist allows a 14-foot speedboat to be mechanically lifted out of the water, raised 15 feet and then withdrawn into the eaves of the larch-clad structure where it is stored at high level. With the boat kept in the upper part of the small building, the space below is freed up for storage.
The estuary setting required a sensitive material response, says the architect. “Located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with millennia-old connections to UK maritime history, the area is highly protected and nothing can be built adjacent to the water without permission from a large variety of stakeholders”. The skin of untreated Siberian larch is intended to reflect the building’s woodland setting, and will silver over time “creating a material dialogue with the structure”. Internally the timber will retain some of the golden warmth of its un-weathered state. A full-length rooflight admits diffuse light into the main space and mezzanine deck, while a series of sliding doors enables access from both land and water.
To design the lifting gear, Wimshurst Pelleriti worked with specialist firm WISE boat hoists, which normally provides handling solutions for large dockyards.
The quayside approach to the boat house has also been carefully restored. Its design takes cues from the village, and the route is laid with reclaimed Cornish granite kerbs and new setts that run up the tidal slipway and into the building. “The building now sits proudly on the bank of the Yealm”, says the architect, “in conversation with the nearby listed ‘Baring Boathouse’, commissioned in 1880 by Edward Baring”.
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