Layers of History in the Dulais Valley

The proposed Knowledge Network will offer training in Low Carbon Construction, adding value to the quality of local housing stock, and upskilling local professionals.

The Mine-water Heat Recovery chamber will provide the basis for technical skills training, focussed on renewable infrastructure. Other skills include rap-around business support, basic digital literacy and innovation.

The building itself responds to the call of history to envelope the existing industrial structures within something new, challenging their frozen listing status and providing unique insights into the potential for adapting heritage assets. The sourcing of materials, structural strategy and massing approach work together to provide a benchmark for ambitious low-carbon construction with the building process as a teaching tool sitting at the core of the strategy.

Reflecting elements of the past, the wider connections, the knowlegde sharing and layered massing, bring the proposal together to explore form as a way to communicate a coherent concept.