East Beach Café was completed in June 2007 and has since won more than 20 national and international awards for design, architecture, steelwork, craftsmanship and engineering.
The inspiration for the design was a piece of driftwood, though it references many natural shapes of the sea and the coast – sand dunes, waves, rocks or anything you might find washed up on the beach.
The exterior is made from mild steel, rusted and then coated in a special oil to protect it from the elements. It is a giant jigsaw of hundreds of flat ribbons of steel, each unique in shape, and was built over nine months by two men. Like the hull of a ship it is a self-supporting structure (monocoque), and is an extremely complicated piece of engineering.

It was made in Littlehampton in four separate pieces, then brought on site and welded together. The whole process from commissioning the architect to completion took 18 months.

Thomas Heatherwick heads one of the leading design practices in the world and was described by The Times as “The most creative mind in Britain”. Visit Heatherwick Studio website HERE

"this visionary cafe will have its own Guggenheim effect" Guardian