Reuse

So who are Resolven? When tasked with the retrofit of the Resolven Miner’s Welfare, we knew this was a sensitive scheme with a strong community presence and rich history. Therefore, we wanted our proposal to be something that could reflect and accommodate this.

We want to use the people of Resolven as the main driver for our design strategies, working at a scale of redevelopment that we think would be beneficial for them and therefore allowing them the opportunity to expand the schemes reach into the future. The contrast in users that have an experience within the space means flexibility and longevity will be a key focus in our final proposal, making multiple areas that can be adapted for use to achieve the most out of the space, socially and

In order to create a landmark at the scale of Resolven, we investigated examples of targeted spaces that the community would require. An overall improvement in community well-being and social sustainability was important to us, so we have looked at making a small area for drop-in well-being sessions or a community gardening club. The interaction with the local younger generation was also a key focus, specifically making them more involved in the rich history of the miners.

Furthermore, to preserve the strong identity of the users of the space, we must create a proposal that reflects their need of a multi-use, connected building that allows an overlap of different people to use the space simultaneously.

Learning from Resolven Miners Welfare Ltd’s previous success, we aim to involve stakeholders such as Moondance and The Big Lottery Fund, as well as creating spaces that can encourage smaller stakeholders such as the community garden and performance space.

Our strategies intend to create the most efficient use of space to reduce the overall cost for the trust whilst also respecting the history of the building itself. A space that is accessible for all in a time where cost of living is so high.

Visual links between the event spaces such as partitions or internal windows allow a cohesion between the different events taking place and encourage the sense of place and community we want to achieve, creating connections whilst allowing the building to maximise its opportunities for holding events.

Thresholds linking these event spaces to the core promenade and lobby also allow a constant connection to the buildings arrival and heritage taking place in the core, and a much more focused circulation between spaces.

If successful, our scheme will create a set of spaces at different scales that can bring together both the current users and the future generation in Resolven - Overlapping users whilst still allowing the multiple community events based in the building to happen simultaneously.