Everything Changes

The rythmn of life told in building replacement

The impermanence of “everything” fascinates me, more so as I get older and see what was new become old (yes, yes, insert mirror joke here).

Years

It’s easy to see in a row of beach huts. At any one time there’s new, old, derelict, refurbished. The change ripples along a row year by year as neighbours update, storms demolish and ownership changes.

Decades

There’s a longer replacement cycle for permanent residences, that can be measured in decades.

On a cycle around Shoreham Beach in Shoreham-by-Sea there’s suddenly a void where a post WWII bungalow has been demolished to make way for something, bigger, bolder - but no more permanent.

The front door is there, but little else remains, and the vista through the yacht club to the docks is briefly open, until the rebuild starts.

Lifetimes

Shoreham Port has been operational for hundreds of years, but west of the port entrance the wharves have been silent for years and there is a sweep of new development, change of use from industrial to residential, the new builds may be more or less permanent than a bungalow, but there will come a day when these are replaced and the cycle continues.