An Adaptive Reuse Project: Revitalising low-carbon industry on the site of Crumlin Navigation Colliery

My thesis revolves around three core principles; strengthening insular ties within Crumlin and honouring the industrial history of the site by revitalising industry, creating opportunities for education and employment of the next generation of the community, and expiating the environmental damages of the history of the associated industry on site by furthering opportunities for low-carbon innovation in South Wales.

Historically, singular industry communities, coal mining being the most prominent example, have moved into Welsh towns and villages, dominating employment and boosting population, only to devastate the communities when the industries inevitably move away or become redundant. My scheme is centred around a model for multiple, smaller industries to inhabit the site that have more scope to interchange and adapt for new and evolving industries throughout the lifetime of the scheme.

These principles have culminated in a low carbon innovation centre with visitor facilities for educational groups of all ages, providing an immersive experience into low carbon technologies and innovation. I have masterplanned these industries to inhabit the entire site, centred around circulation using the reed beds required for mine water purification. My two focus buildings consist of hydrogen production, compression, storage and distribution facilities housed in the Power House and Bath House.

I believe that this model for multiple low-carbon industries has the potential to meet my original three principles. Given time, I would have enjoyed being able to design the whole site to the same level of detail as my focus buildings, but unfortunately it was not within the achievable scope of this project.