The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
About the Swansea School of Architecture
Location Swansea | Courses BA (Hons) Architecture | Head of school Paul Harries | Full-time tutors 4 | Part-time tutors 6 | Students 34 | Staff to student ratio 1:9
Undergraduate
Nicholas Smith
Course BA (Hons) Architecture
Studio/unit brief Final Year Studio
Project title Amgueddfa Dur Cymru – Steel Museum of Wales
Project description This is a proposal for a Wales National Steel Museum in the heart of the steel-making town of Port Talbot. In the town’s 1960s heyday, the Abbey Steelworks employed over 20,000 people but now the town is in decline. The museum aims to draw upon the history and narrative of steel production to champion its industry and restore community pride. The building is placed on a former car park next to the River Afan, as part of a wider city-centre masterplan connecting back to the river, once an integral part of the steel-making process. The museum is formed out of different materials, locally reclaimed where possible. Visitors will journey through the history of Port Talbot, learning the story of its steel production, from extraction of raw materials to manufactured products.
Tutor citation Nicholas’s project has a formal inventiveness in communicating the memory of steel production within its physical form, while developing a strong narrative regarding the experience of steel production in Wales, both achieved with an elegant spatial strategy. Paul Harries, Gavin Traylor
