Dungeness, allows me to find calm and let inspiration in…
I often get asked about where I find my inspiration for my work. I usually answer that it comes from anything and everything, which I guess it does... but to be able to create and feel inspired my mind has to be relaxed so it can be open to being inspired... Dungeness, in Kent, is a place that does this to me, it helps me relax and feel inspired. It's a place that feels almost apocalyptic, but in a utopian way. The vastness of the landscape and feeling of being so small in comparison to everything else around me makes me feel at ease and opens up my senses up to allow inspiration in. It's an eerie place, but really beautiful in its own way.
Fog Signal
The landscape is flat with a vast shingle beach and the sea on one side and and then this prairie like landscape on the other, parted by narrow tarmac road. By the edge of this hamlet sits a huge, hulking nuclear power station. In amongst the small bungalow style houses, which are scattered through this landscape, you'll find different artefacts, boat skeletons, sea kale and other peculiar plants that can survive here, sea containers and random buildings that ones had a practical purpose in this strange landscape. Pump station, Radar, The fog signal, The coast guard tower and the Experimental station are now incredible beautiful homes and holiday lets, all stylishly redesigned and repurposed by Johnson Naylor, interior architects.
"Radar Station sits on the site of two pre-fabricated timber sheds erected by Decca in 1961. Decca is the name of a record label that branches into different enterprises including it’s Radar division which was started in 1949. Preserving the memory of the two shed forms maintains a link with the original building and its history. Radar is located in a string of other industrial buildings on the headland which separate themselves from the typical domestic railway carriage vernacular common to Dungeness. Original concrete fence posts mark the edge but now the beach is allowed to blend through linking the building to the vastness of the beach."
https://www.johnsonnaylor.co.uk/projects/radar-station/
"The Pump Station was built during World War 2 as a pumping station to send fuel though undersea pipes to France to support the D-Day landings. It has been adventurously restored and converted into a holiday home. Much of the original construction such as the a concrete plank ceiling supported with steel beams has been retained, contrasting with the modern interventions."
Pump Station
Being able to breath in the fresh air while being surrounded by all of this relaxes me and allows me to see the beauty in everything around me and makes me find inspiration in the simplest things. It's a place where I can just be and not have to worry about anything else. I LOVE Dungeness.
Karin X