Bespoke seating to Littlehampton

As part of The Environment Agency’s £13 million programme to transform urban and rural public realm, LDA Design were appointed to revitalise 2.5km of waterfront alongside the River Arun’s East Bank. A feature of the flood defence project is the bespoke seating the designers made using Kebony, the sustainable alternative to tropical hardwood. Overall, the project protects 750 homes and 300 businesses in Littlehampton, Sussex from being affected by flooding for the next 100 years.

This scheme will protect thousands of homes and businesses from flood risk, whilst simultaneously creating a destination for both the local community and visitors to enjoy. LDA’s ethos looked to combine simplicity with high quality design, sensitively integrating the physical requirements of the flood defence to the project. The design team took inspiration from the surrounding area, drawing on the connectivity between the town centre and the River Arun, in collaborating with the local community. The combination of low ramps, pedestrian steps and Kebony timber seating terraces create an attractive and unified public realm, for local residents and visitors to Littlehampton.

The Environment Agency has a strict timber procurement policy that requires all timber and wood-derived products used to be from sustainable sources. Consequently, LDA design welcomed the opportunity to use Kebony for the scheme. Kebony, a highly durable and structurally stable product, was selected for its resilience and ability to withstand the challenging marine environment. Furthermore, it protect tropical forests by diverting demand for hardwoods; sustainable sourced softs are impregnated with a bio-based liquid and then heated under pressure, so that the wood permanently adopts the properties of tropical hardwood.

Sophie Thompson, Director at LDA Design, said: “This scheme shows that intelligent design has the power to deliver profound and lasting economic and environmental benefits. We were thrilled to be able to work with Kebony again, we have used the product in our designs a number of times previously and the result always looks fantastic, both at the time of installation and in years to come.”