Sunspot

by HAT Projects

Client Tendring District Council

Award RIBA East Award 2025 and Client of the Year 2025 (sponsored by Equitone)

The award winner tells us: "Sunspot is a ground-breaking project in one of the country’s most economically deprived places – the plotlands settlement of Jaywick Sands on the Essex coast. It stands on a central seafront site which had been derelict for many years, following the decline of the attractions that had anchored the economy and identity of the community.

HAT Projects’ design has created a joyful landmark, a new hub for the community, and a catalyst for wider regeneration. The building provides 24 low cost business units alongside a covered market, community garden, bus shelter, café, public WCs, and outdoor events space. It was fully let within months of opening and hosts a weekly market and other community events; from theatre and music to training and drop-in clinics.

Its zigzag silhouette, distinctive colour scheme, and the accents of canopies, awnings, and signage form an unpretentious, generous, and resilient architecture – reflecting the character of the community itself."

The jury says: "The project is very much ‘of Essex’, of this place, and it delivers with confidence something quirky, tough and bold. The architects have taken the industrial aesthetic and then carefully played with some well-detailed components to create something to inspire the local community: projecting canopies, shelter for the bus stop, zigzag roof and opaque panels for the market. It is all quite robust and sensible, economical and restrained, with simple fittings but with splashes of colour."

Read the full citation from the RIBA Awards Jury on RIBA Journal

Contractor T J Evers

Structural engineer Momentum Engineering

Building services consultant Ingleton Wood

Quantity surveyor/cost consultant Potter Raper Partnership

Ecologist Woodfield Ecology

Gross internal area 1,490m²