Following the closure of the famous Barry Island holiday camp in the 1990’s, much of the site was developed into housing. With a desire to regenerate the area and grow the number of visitors once again, a £3.3m project began in 2012 to give the seaside promenade a much needed face lift. The 4.7 acre site was turned into a mix of restaurants and cafes with a cinema, bowling alley, 124 flats and rows of beach huts. And what better way to compliment this new development, than an architectural embellishment including multiple tensile fabric canopies.
A bespoke, asymmetrical inclined single conic structure stands proud on the seafront, providing essential protection from the heat of the Barry Island sun (and perhaps the occasional rain). A row of six 1P600 Chiltern standard fabric canopies also adorn the seafront, elegant single post umbrella structures that will be permanently ‘up’, rain or shine, no matter what the weather throws at the Welsh coastline.
The site was officially handed over to the Council in December 2014 with Councillor Lis Burnett commenting, “Hopefully now Barry Island can become the jewel in the crown of the Vale that we always knew it could be.”