Bournemouth Steps was a developer's commission and the Summer Casino projects were also designed in competition both external and internal. Archigram made two projects for this facility, which had to include gambling rooms, a night club, a restaurant and an events space known as the Gala Hall. The present building contains such a space which is really a trellis work able to absorb a quick change of surface styling and event. The whole thing is very much open to the air and the sea.
We designed the two versions, one with the symbol of the chameleon and one with the symbol of the palm tree calling attention to the slightly unreal atmosphere of a select club out on a flat promontory in the Mediterranean. In both schemes the mounding and softening of natural landscape and designed elements and mechanized elements was at once obvious and – on second glance- ambiguous. These schemes represent a continuation of the Bournemouth Steps thinking but are perhaps simpler and more gentle.
Archigram
Archigram, Edited by Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron & Mike Webb, 1972 [reprinted New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999]: pp122-123.