A Beach-Side Surf Shelter For The New Olympic Discipline

The Japanese, Kamakura-based architect Yuji Tanabe, has recently unveiled a surf shelter inspired by the waves and their perpetual motion in deep waters. He has studied the flow of water which creates this phenomenon — a kind of rotation, which gives the impression of movement from top to bottom — in order to create a space in its image, unfolding, like the swell, across several levels.

The maquette for ‘Surfer’s House by Swell’ reveals a wooden construction on stilts. It is made up of three distinct parts all optimised for the observation of the ocean, including several relaxation areas, as well as a fully-equipped living room, a car park and a bedroom. Once completed, the life-sized shelter should measure 180 square meters. The orientation of its ‘summer tower’ and ‘winter tower’ will measure the offshore wind and daylight, while the ‘observation tower’ will be designed so that surfers can observe the movements of the ocean and swell from their shelter.

The project, due to be built in Kamakura, in the Kanagawa Prefecture, is topical, as surfing will be introduced as an Olympic discipline for the first time in 2020 at the Tokyo Games. The event will feature 40 surfers — 20 men and 20 women — who will compete on Tsurigasaki Beach, in the Chiga prefecture, 100 hundred kilometers from the capital.