Ullswater Yacht Club
A new lakeside clubhouse, shaped by water, fell and flood
Lake District National Park, 2011
Ullswater Yacht Club's original clubhouse, on the north-east shore of England's second largest lake, was badly damaged in the floods of November 2009. Although temporary repairs kept the club running, the Committee took the opportunity to look further ahead, and worked with the RIBA Competitions Office to launch a nationwide design competition for a new building — one that could give the club the modern, flexible facilities it had outgrown, while sitting confidently within a flood-prone site at the heart of a national park.
Our response set the building on a shallow crescent, curving with the line of the shore rather than against it. A long, low jetty sweeps out from the clubhouse to break the water, its ranks of timber piles echoing the masts moored alongside — so that from a distance the building reads as part of the shoreline itself, rather than something dropped onto it. At the pivot of the plan, a glazed race office turns to face out across the water, giving officials and members a clear, uninterrupted view of the racing while anchoring the composition where curve meets shore.
The accommodation was arranged to keep the most vulnerable spaces clear of future flood water, with hard-wearing, easily cleaned ground-floor areas for changing and storage, and the principal clubroom raised above and open to the fells beyond. Timber cladding and a resilient , concrete character were chosen deliberately, to give the club a building that feels working and unpretentious rather than showy — practical for sailors coming off the water, and welcoming for the wider community events the club hoped to host.
Location: Ullswater, Cumbria, Lake District National Park
Client: Ullswater Yacht Club
Status: Competition entry
