Reconnecting the Afan Valley area through a multi-purpose sports hall

The intersection of nature and human, the play of light and shadow, the combination of a temporary, light framework and heavy permanent elements, the fine line between being nondescript and bold, the element of exploration, ... A multi-purpose sports hall, embedded into the slope of the site's nature addresses the valley's issue of a missing communal venue. Sport events, concerts, performances, markets, exhibitions, and much more; the proposal serves as a ground to bring people together and initiate conversations, all while addressing important sustainbility considerations.

The Afan Valley area, which once thrived on a strong mining industry, nowadays faces a lot of issues, such as a decrease in population, the closure of local amenities such as schools, the emigration of younger people, a poor infrastructure, a missing communal voice, ... To address these issues the community needs to come together as a way to combat those problems. However, in the case of Pontrhydyfen our unit found out, that the town is missing structures to accommodate for such talks and opportunities.

By working with locally available resources such as timber and rammed earth, early works already focused on the combination of those materials. The idea of a big, adaptable room, which uses activities and events as a way to bring people together, combined with the idea of intersecting different materials as different structural elements, resulted in the multi-purpose sports hall as the main part of the proposal. The former primary school also located on the site is further re-purposed into experimental housing for younger generations.

Exploring and researching rammed earth projects, especially in the UK, was not only interesting for this task, but will certainly help and inspire me for future projects, with the goal of achieving beautiful, sustainable design. Approaching the project through quick sketches, colorful paintings and physical models was an interesting and different approach to what I was used to and helped me expand my ways of designing.