Revival beside the seaside: The lugworm that could turn the fortunes of a faded resort

The latest attempt to rejuvenate the British seaside will be heralded with the announcement that the seafront at Hastings in Sussex – once the sunset-years capital of the south coast – is to be invaded by a building that looks like a gigantic, croissant-shaped lugworm.

In commissioning the new Stade Maritime visitor centre – designed by the trendy Anglo-Japanese architects Ushida Findlay – Hastings is following a modernising example previously set by other coastal resorts, notably Brighton, Bridlington and Margate.

But there is more. It is hoped that the wood-and-glass visitor centre, whose form is based on fishing nets, boat hulls and the local net huts which support Britain's biggest beach-based fishing fleet, will kick-start a £400m redevelopment project funded by the Government and private capital. Plans include environmentally friendly housing, mini-transport hubs, an art gallery and a design and IT annexe to Brighton University – all in Hastings.

Seaside towns have figured prominently in regeneration projects in recent years either because their "take" can be rapidly increased or – as in the cases of Margate and Hastings – because they are at risk of urban meltdown.

In other words, redevelopment can bring rich pickings. And the alternative – the rundown seaside resorts which have become a feature of the British map – is too much to bear. So can Hastings become the new Brighton – a town which has enjoyed an unparalleled boom in trendiness, not to mention property prices, in the last two decades?

Apart from history, Hastings already has much to recommend it – an Old Town, a museum and castle, and the scenery of nearby towns like Battle. No doubt the £3m visitor centre will be considered unseemly by some residents whose idea of progress is a decorous regression into the past. But the town's demographics, and commercial condition, are changing – and ratepayers appear to be on side judging by the positive reaction of the 1,400 locals drawn to an exhibition of the scheme.

"Everyone loved the building," said Tania Herbert, a spokeswoman for Hastings Borough Council.

Lee Gibbs, a journalist on the Hastings Observer, hedged his bets, confirming that feeling about the visitor centre was strong, "but quite mixed. A lot of people want it, but whether it's right for the town remains to be seen".

The project – give or take an adjustment or two – is expected to be passed by the Labour-controlled council in the autumn. And if it is, Hastings will not only have joined the architectural seaside big league, it will have topped it with a building more adventurous than anything found on the revamped and award-winning foreshores of Brighton or Bridlington, in Yorkshire.

The visitor centre may also upstage the impending redevelopment of the architecturally iconic Bexhill Pavilion, and the creation of Margate's new Turner Centre. Only Hull's recently completed "submarium", The Deep, could claim to be as avant garde.

Hastings may not have Brighton's DJ of the moment, Fatboy Slim, but it believes cutting-edge architecture will help make it a regionally significant tourist magnet with a better "offer".

Hasting's visitor centre is therefore not an exercise in hype, but part of an uncomfortable make-or-break scenario already familiar to architectural masterplanners in other parts of Britain who are trying to regenerate urban areas with flagship projects. Sir Terry Farrell, responsible for regeneration in Hull and Margate, faces particularly complex problems.

But, of all the seaside resorts that have been redeveloped in recent years, the challenge of revamping Hastings is perhaps the greatest.

The changing population profile – it has the highest proportion of under-20s in Sussex – and a steady decline in holidaymakers staying a week or more has squeezed local traders' profits, and the council's ability to improve already fraying infrastructure. The town was once dense with hotels; today, many of them, and scores of large, pre-1919 buildings, are part of a burgeoning number of bedsits and flats.

Hastings also has a rampant drug problem, which in part reflects its status as an accommodation centre of last resort for people who struggle to be housed elsewhere. While property prices have soared along England's south coast, in Hastings they have remained rooted to the spot. The extent of the town's socio-economic plight is revealed by the council's choice of urban masterplanner. MBM are big guns internationally – they did the business in Barcelona, and are now at work in south London.

"We're aiming to be the best," said the council leader, Jeremy Birch. "Why shouldn't we have the best architects and designers working for the town? We've taken second best for too long.

"We want to move from 'the town that has problems' to being the town that can show the way through planning skills and architectural skills. We want to change the reputation of the town, and the visitor market of the town." Hence the choice of Ushida Findlay which, according to Mr Birch, was unanimous: a radical high-impact building was vital.

In choosing the architects, the council plugged straight into the highest voltage of creative design. Ushida Findlay has just gained planning permission for a huge, octopus-shaped country pile in Cheshire and has established a reputation for organic, sculptural structures tied to landscapes.

So can Hastings be reinvented by buffing up its architectural content? One problem, so far intractable, is obvious: getting there isn't easy. It is 80 minutes by train from London, and reached only sluggishly by car via coast roads. This problem was exacerbated by the rejection on environmental grounds last year of a long-hoped-for bypass designed to ease endemic traffic problems within.

The town generates £155m a year from tourism – and that may not be enough to stop a slide into urban obscurity. However the new visitor centre is projected to double the 75,000 people who use the town's tourist information points.

"We have to show what's unique about Hastings," said Mr Birch. At the moment, "we're just the end of the line from Charing Cross".

The visitor centre "will be the most dramatic manifestation of the town's uniqueness", he said. But it won't be the most important.

The council's regeneration strategy hinges on a plan to create 1,000 new, environmentally advanced homes equipped with broadband portals, a "string of pearls" along the east-west coastal railway line. But this Millennium Community will depend on small stations along the route to make living in these housing estates practical.

The new battle of Hastings is yet another example of the challenges posed by urban regeneration in the world's third most densely populated country; a land where compressed leisure time demands quick-fix outings and amusements. Hastings is undeniably unique, but it just doesn't have a suitably modern image.

Ushida Findlay's lugworm-like visitor centre will strike a clangorous first blow for post-millennial modernity. Mr Birch, and his regeneration director, Caroline Lwin, must hope that its echo does not turn out to be hollow.

Resorts fighting back

Bridlington:
East Riding County Council's £60m plan includes designs for a conference centre and 500-berth marina. A community resource centre, 46 shop fronts and 18 hotel fronts have been upgraded and environmental improvements made to two large areas of public space linking the harbour with the north promenade. The marina, which will be formed by building a breakwater south of the harbour, is subject to a public inquiry.

Brighton:
The West Pier is being restored for £30m while the Aquarium Terraces and Madeira Colonnade have had facelifts. The Art Deco Dome has been transformed into an international centre for performing arts, conferences and exhibitions with a budget of £30m. The Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, the Royal Pavilion and the Theatre Royal are also being restored as part of the extensive regeneration programme.

Bournemouth:
The town is shaking off its blue-rinse image with a £15m programme for a new Waterfront Complex, which will house an Imax cinema, grill bar, pub and nightclub. The Bourne Avenue retail development cost £6m, and the town's central square has had a £1.9m continental-style revamp. The new public library cost £4m, while the 14,000 students of Bournemouth University have brought an influx of youth and money.