Sykes Owner Stories - The Transmitter Bunker

Tucked away in the rural setting of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Ringstead Bay, Dorset, this restored, unique former bunker, 'The Transmitter Bunker'.

The property boasts a historical heritage from the second world war and is just two fields away from the sea.

The architect behind the project, Jonny Plant, gives us his experience in designing and working on a unique property like this and the challenges faced during the process.

My name is Jonny Plant, I’m an architect, and I’m a director of ‘Corstorphine & Wright Architects’. We were the architects for this scheme, taking it from the initial derelict bunker through to design, planning and construction.

Tell us about the history of the bunker

This bunker is one of five bunkers on the farm, this was the transmitter bunker, one of the smaller bunkers and they were part of the system where the masts for the radar network were built.

Talk us through your plans for the design of the project

It’s a unique build, doing something subterranean, there was this sort of approach to trying to retain the historic fabric forming a view and an opening out and light into the bunker. The work we do is very narrative-driven, we understand the context of placing people in history in the way that we work and so we were able to tell that narrative of the history of the building and the physical context, which were these incredible views out across the bay. So, it was probably those two elements of history and that view that we wanted to bring together and then for people to come and enjoy, and to experience.

So there is a lot of structure in here that you cannot see now which is hidden up in the roof but effectively the opening is supported by steelwork, you then cut a clean opening to approximately the size we wanted and then we chiselled away to create more of a rough blast opening rather than the clean-cut, but it wasn’t straight forward.

The holes in the roof are just air vents that were part of the original structure, they provide really helpful additional light. The real challenge of the building from a technical point of view was in order to keep this concrete internally, everything to do with waterproofing and insulating, all of the new structure that was needed had to be done externally.

Were there any issues during the transformation process

I suppose the two main issues were, the building got listed as we were about to receive planning permission, and it had the effect that every single detail had to be looked at really closely from a heritage point of view. That in itself wasn’t a problem because we had always approached it from that point of view anyway because we felt the historic significance.

The other part that was complex was the fact that we’d never done one before and I don’t think many people have so every single detail, every single construction detail, how the main doors sit within a blast opening, they were all bespoke, so again there’s a sort of complex detailing process that allows everything to look really simple.

I don’t actually know what was there but there was previously a recess in the main living space, it was just an obvious place to leave a little memento of the history of the building, it was an opportunity to just have an element of history in the building where people could understand the significance of this bunker and the entire radar network.

What are your thoughts on returning to the Transmitter Bunker?

We are delighted with it, we came three years ago and saw the potential in it, but it’s taken a lot of processes, through understanding the building and getting it through the listed building applications etc. But I think we have achieved what we have set out to do, which was to make a really comfortable home but to really celebrate and to be able to experience a WW2 bunker and to also get these great views out.

It’s really nice to be back here today to see how all the vegetation has grown back, that although we had to take everything away, we’ve put it all back and it sits here now really comfortably as it did but with a use that it now could go years and years and also that the wider public can come and enjoy and it feels like the right thing to have done, to have taken something that was buried, uninhabitable but highly significant and say let’s celebrate something as simple as this but something so historically important and significant. As much as we can celebrate our architectural success, huge credit has to go to our client for having that vision to do it.

How Important was it to Preserve the History of the Building?

Preserving history here was fundamental, it was the starting point for the design, architecture is about context, it’s about understanding where we are physically and where we sit historically in a timeline and being able to tell the story of this piece of architecture, it’s really important.

I’m very proud of it, I love talking about it, I love the research we did to understand what this was, and the role it played. I didn’t really understand what the radar network did, and I find it extraordinary that the German Air Force could not understand how we knew they were coming because of radar, that just seems crazy in this world where we probably know where everybody is all of the time by just having your mobile phone on you.

How do you feel to be involved with such a Unique Project?

I think it has been a great process to be involved with and we are super pleased it has turned out as well as it has. We are starting the second bunker, which is a little further along the lane here and it’s going to be really exciting to take all of the lessons from this one and apply that to the second, larger bunker, with a lot of similar principles but a few lessons learnt as well.

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