‘The solid fill of the section hides the wealth beneath our feet ... the
sedimented histories ... multiplicity of meanings, beings, and beliefs’

Addressing the richly overlain, repeatedly excavated, and infilled context of Neath Abbey, we will immerse ourselves in this urban landscape of change, within which, in response to historic need, the C14 ecclesiastical settlement was translated first into a C16 mansion, and then a C18 metalworks, its fabric harvested for raw materials, infilled with industrial waste, re-excavated, and now suspended in the aspic of ruination, an aberrant and incongruous fragment within a territory of low-grade industry, sprawling retail sheds, and evident socio-environmental need.

Against this backdrop, and engaging with Aldo Rossi’s seminal theory of ‘permanences’, we will explore the ‘wealth’ of the ruins, and their potential – whether by ‘pathological’ stasis or ‘propelling’ change – to contribute to the socio-environmental repair of the town.

To do so will require a close and considered analysis of the physical and metaphorical influences underlying Neath and, to this end, the Autumn Semester will begin with an Excavation, a series of group and individual readings to infiltrate the stratigraphy of place.

Conducted alongside a critical analysis of the new and old responses of Scarpa, Fehn, Zumthor, et al, this research will be combined into a Primer, a semi-conceptual piece, representing both a personal declaration of change, and a manifesto for the Spring Semester’s Intervention.