Due to open this summer, the British Airways i360 is a new futuristic landmark for Brighton’s seafront designed by architects David Marks and Julia Barfield. It is hoped that the BA i360 will herald a new touristic golden age for Brighton, replicating the success of the London eye on Brighton’s seafront. The i360 will be possibly be advertised on British Airways flights to the UK, in an international revival of Brighton's ambitions. Inclusive of the immediate community, there will be half price tickets for Brighton residents and free entry for state school children in Brighton and Hove once in their school career. There is also to be a restaurant at the base of the tower, and the restoration of a pair of original building on the West Pier.

The BA i360 June 2016 - Image courtesy of British Airways i360/Kevin Meredith

In juxtaposition to the i360 tower, the Grade I listed West Pier is situated adjacent. The condemned structure is a skeleton from the golden age of domestic holidaying. The i360's form has a rather UFO-like quality that fits into the novelty atmosphere of the Brighton seaside, so it is perhaps not so far removed from the original ambitions and spectacle of the dilapidated West Pier. Marks and Barfield both trained at the AA under tutors who were influenced by the pioneer of geodesic dome construction, Buckminster Fuller. Speaking to the Telegraph, Julia Barfield explains: ‘What happened to the West Pier is so sad, but the fact that we are building on the heritage of the original pier is very fitting, along with the idea of a 21st-century vertical pier.'

Construction of the tower, 2015 - Image Eleanor Marshall

Brighton’s seafront has a legacy of architectural ambition. Eight years after a controversial scheme by Frank Gehry was dropped, the Stirling Prize winners Haworth Tompkins have replaced it with a soberer scheme. When the shiny new BA i360 tower is revealed this summer it will be a new chapter in Brighton’s history of seafront amusements, as the remains of the West Pier crumble into the sea.

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