Strategic Proposal

Throughout this proposal we addressed the combination of social interaction and wider community spread engagement with the Resolven Miners Welfare as the central core of the community. We took a holistic approach to integrate sustainability from the core of the building reflecting through to the facade.

The existing community is very segregated with each different part operating without a direct relationship to any other. We discussed the importance of integrating the Resolven Miners Welfare with the rest of the community and considered designing a proposal that would realise the needs of the wider community and operate as a third space and beacon for the neighbourhood. To further our proposal we engaged with sustainable design methods to create a space that would be able to operate efficiently for years to come.

Our group project was realised through individual and group design tasks and compiled to produce a holistic design. We investigated the information provided by the client to understand the ethos of the project and adapt that with our own design agendas. Upon separation we each undertook an individual technical imagination study to further consider and investigate the closer details and wider impact of our projects. These included detail explorations, sketch proposals, materiality studies and spatial experiences to understand the overall impact and atmosphere of our designs. This individual phase allowed for deeper exploration into our projects, and delve into the needs of the community and how these could be realised through our designs. The individual study progressing from Phase 2 into Phase 4 allowed for us to accentuate our individual design styles and explore areas that we are personally more interested in and how we could offer something of benefit in every level to the existing community.

The conclusions formed following the interactions with the local community of Resolven throughout the final short course allowed for reflections both personally and as a group. Initial responses highlighted areas of the design that were perhaps neglected and illustrated parts of the proposals both individual and as a group that were developed from a purely personal design approach without direct lead from the community. It highlighted to us the importance of consistent feedback with clients throughout the design process, and reinforced the personal architectural approaches that take place whilst designing.