Dover Esplanade by Tonkin Liu

Dover is a strange place. One of the most iconic gateways into England from mainland Europe, its dramatic craggy white cliffs have inspired poets, artists and musicians. But the town itself is far from a picture postcard and like many port cities is a mixture of unemployment and a transient immigrant population, its beaches stony and unwelcoming. London architects Tonkin Liu were commissioned to improve one of the beach walks by a government programme to encourage cultural regeneration to England's seaside resorts. Their site was an esplanade that runs between the east and western docks with a backdrop of a 19th century regency terrace. As one of the first encounters with the town for many ferry and cruise passengers, the existing esplanade was recognised as an important amenity for Dover residents but lacked a sense of place and failed to make an attraction of the seafront.

Following the footsteps of almost all designers building close to the sea, Tonkin Liu's response is a gentle curving infrastructure. Three artworks named 'lifting wave, resting wave and lighting wave' were conceived to emerge from the heritage of the town and from the desires of the residents. The three waves each make a different contextual reference to place, responding to the environmental conditions of the seafront location; each fulfill social tasks in the form of physical provision and through psychological association; each explore themes at the scale of the city and at the minutia of construction detail. By looking for inspiration in the context of Dover as well as the broader context of the sea, the architects asked people ?what it wanted to be', rather than what is is.

The Lifting Wave is a series of sculptural ramps and staircases made of pre-cast white concrete that rise and fall to connect the Esplanade to the lower shingle beach.

The Resting Wave is a sculptural retaining wall that runs the length of the Esplanade, providing bay spaces with seating sheltered from the south-westerly wind and orientated towards the sun. The wall is constructed by a shifting system of precast white concrete blocks formed in stacked timber moulds, which result in creating a textured surface similar to that of the sedimentary strata layers of Dover's White Cliffs.

The Lighting Wave is a line of white columns combining large flood lights, medium spot lights and mini spot lights to illuminate the froth of the Lighting Wave. All are programmed to an intelligent lighting system that marks the passing of time with a lighting sequence on the hour and a simplified sequence on the quarter hour.