Location: St Saviour, Jersey
Client: Mascot Motors (Part of Seymour Hotel Group)
RIBA Plan of Work stages: 0-7
The Merton Hotel is a pair of buildings, one holding 291 guest bedrooms and the other a leisure club combined with a water park, in St. Saviour near the south-east coast of Jersey. The hotel is the largest leisure hotel on the island, and one of the most popular hotels within the Channel Islands for family holidays. PWP Architects was asked to develop the site of existing staff car parking for a new holiday apartment building, where rooms are arranged in such a way as to be combined for larger groups.
The building is located at the top of Belvedere Hill and is designed to benefit from the mid distance views to the rocky coastline across the southerly aspect of the site. The arrangement of the external balcony decks allows the building to cascade dramatically down the hillside; a strong horizontal emphasis in the detailing helps to form anchorage into the sloping site. Roof level brise soleil contributes to the variety of planes that create a visually exciting geometrical combination on the building’s southern elevation.
The building also responds to the surroundings, reducing in height towards the existing buildings, whilst balcony views will look over the properties to the south, shielding immediate views into garden spaces with screening vegetation.
