Restarting the growth of a community through adaptable architecture

The aim of this project is to investigate how my design can contribute to the growth of Treherbert by recreating an interconnected hub on our site, growing a network of support and communication where important nodes can interact to complement and benefit each other to serve and to help the community prosper. The hub itself grows over time, adapting to the changing needs of the network and the site, potentially extending the site’s territory, through connections with the rest of the valley.

Mothertrees, the oldest and the most highly-connected trees, act as central hubs by utilising their network to support and communicate with other trees. After having met with and conducted community involvement with Welcome To Our Woods, a community partnership in Treherbert, our clients for this project the idea of community growth became essential to my design. My project focuses on recreating an interconnected hub on our site to, over time, grow a network of support and communication across Treherbert, where important nodes can interact to complement and benefit each other to serve and to help the community prosper.

To achieve my final design I explored a construction system with disassembly, local materials and reuse in mind, making it possible for the buildings on site to grow or adapt in tandem with the community and the larger network. The system adapts for it with the ability to add or disassemble units, reusing the same spaces or structural materials in a new construction when necessary.

For this system to work optimally, the construction can be built from scratch or being added to an existing construction. Constructional guidance based on community values developed alongside the design of the modular system is meant to guide the development of the site by considering the optimal constructional use and factoring in the site's limitations, while also laying down framework for the site's development making sure it gives back as much as much as the community puts into it.

My final design is not the definite solution to the site's development, but rather an example of what using the system and guide in conjunction can achieve. Guided by the community’s values, varying needs and a network of nodes to support the system provides the site with a flexibility that growth often requires.

The aim of creating and growing a figurative mother tree and its network of trees across the valley can be achieved by employing the explored construction system and developing it as the site and community starts to grow together. My final design of this project should therefore be considered as an alternative proposal to the site’s development, which, as a community, the people of Treherbert must come together around. to build and support it.