Breaking The Boundaries With New Focus

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the new ‘work-from-home’ culture and urban-rural migration are likely to increase. Under this new norm, spacial flexibility is a key. The project begins in the context of Pontrydyfen, which is a formerly busy town in the Afan valleys of Neath Port Talbot. By making the most of the village’s natural landscape and historical features found on-site, the concept of this project is to design both public, and private spaces with communal areas in between that celebrate the gathering moments of different communities.

Pontrhydyfen is a special place with rich history and it’s world-class mountain bike trail. However, there is a lack of community facilities around the site. There is a great opportunity to reconnect with the community by breaking social boundaries and creating a focal point that gathers different groups of people.

The design process follows the similar approach as the primer project, through exploration and imagining spacial moments to create a focus that gathers communities and highlights the site natural feature

The project is merging the community and visitor centre with some sharing units, including a share house and hostel for cyclists and visitors. It will then form a hub that celebrates various activities. Different groups can come across to others and they share not just spaces, but also experiences. Create the fashionable “serendipity” in new rural.