Architecture of Wales 20th-21th century
Architecture of Wales 20th-21th century is an overview of architecture in Wales from the Modern period to the Contemporary, excluding castles and fortifications, ecclesiastical architecture and industrial architecture. It covers the history of domestic, commercial, and administrative architecture.
Industrial and workers’ housing
In many areas of Wales extensive areas of workers housing appeared in the 19th century, The rows of terraced housing for coal miner’s stretching along the contours of the south Wales valleys are well known. In the areas of the Steel and Tinplate industries similar housing exist and Ironworkers cottages at Rhyd-y-Car in Merthyr Tydfil have been rebuilt at St Fagan’s Folk Museum. while slate and other quarrying settlements in north Wales were often located in remote and isolated places such as Cwm [Penmachno] or Nant Gwrtheyrn. At Nant Gwertheyn, now a Welsh Language learning centre, is situated in a steep ravine and the granite was shipped out by sea. It was originally laid out c. 1878 for the granite quarry workers. There are two terraces of cottages, a Quarry manager’s house and a chapel round a green. The quarry closed in 1914 and the last inhabitant left in 1959. For some skilled workers very much better housing was provided. Railway workers at Railway Terrace in Ruthin were provided with rather superior accommodation by the long closed Vale of Clwyd Railway in 1864
Jacobethan & Tudorbethan
The work of John Douglas the Chester architect, extended into Wales. Plas Fynnon, Nercwys, built as the vicarage to St. Mary’s Parish Church in Tudorbethan style has been attributed to him. Built of brown brick with red brick and sandstone detailing under a steeply-pitched tiled roof with over sailing eaves and plain ridge. Asymmetrical facade with advanced, 2-storey gabled porch with moulded purlin-ends, brackets and plain finial. Tudor-arched entrance of tooled ashlar, stopped and moulded and with date 1877 carved in the spandrels. Another example of Douglas working in the Tudorbethan style was Wigfair Hall, a large country house of 1882–4 standing in an elevated position above the River Elwy near the village of Cefn Meiriadog, Denbighshire, Wales. It is constructed in red Ruabon brick on a limestone plinth with sandstone dressings, and a Ruabon tile roof. It has an L-shape with a main north wing and a west service wing. The style was used by the Shrewsbury architect James Pickhard for building Fronfraith Hall in Llandyssil in Montgomeryshire in 1863.
A more important example of this style is the Neo-Tudor extensions to The Hendre in Monmouthshire, the seat of the Rolls family. The original hunting lodge was constructed in a Neo-Norman style by an unknown architect in the 1820s. This was extended by T. H. Wyatt between 1837 and 1841. Then, from 1870 to the mid-1880s, Wyatt and his clerk of works, Henry Pope added a great Hall, an entrance court and a massive dining-room wing in Neo-Tudor style. Finally in 1895-6 one of the leading architects of the period Aston Webb added the Arts and Crafts Neo-Tudor Library Wing. This created a house with a corridor from the front door to the library of no less than 75 metres. The interior was furnished with much genuine Tudor and Jacobean woodwork, which had been collected from local houses.
Arts and crafts
Arts and Crafts architecture can be seen as an extension of the Tudorbethan Style in Wales. It is seen as starting c. 1887 under the influence of William Morris and was introduced into Wales by architects such as William Eden Nesfield who was responsible for the rebuilding of Kinmel Hall and the designer W.A.S Benson who was the architect for Clochfaen at Llangurig in Montgomeryshire. These architects very much favoured the use of half-timbered decoration, red brickworks, roof tiles and tile hanging on walls. A notable architect in this tradition was Frank Shayler who had set up offices in Oswestry and Shrewsbury and developed an extensive practice particularly in Montgomeryshire. Shayler, together with other architects in his practice were patronised by Lord Davies of Llandinam and were responsible for a series of Institute buildings as well as restoring a number of half timbered buildings such as the Mermaid in Welshpool and Glyndŵr’s Parliament House in Machynlleth. In Radnorshire the architect Stephen W. Williams also worked in this style and built the Offices in Rhayader for the supervision of the Elan Valley Reservoir project. A good example of this style providing domestic housing is the Lodge at Chepstow, built between 1902 and 1908 by an unknown architect. Newman describes this as a witty, if rather belated essay in Norman Shaw style with stone, tile hanging and half-timbered gables.
Later arts and crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement progressed in Wales very much under the influence of C F Voysey, and Edwin Lutyens, who were throwing off the influence of both the Gothic Revival and the half-timbered Tudor revival styls which had been so prevalent in Wales. Voysey had worked in partnership with J.P. Seddon with offices in Cardiff, but, as yet no examples of his work have been recognised. Then in 1903 – 6 he comes back to Wales to design the little known Ty Bronna on St Fagans Road, Cardiff. This is a minor masterpiece with its clean white outline, faced in stone, gabled at each end with a hipped roof and the angled battered buttresses from ground level to the eaves. It has a bowed east window with a recessed veranda and was restored in 2002. Pevsner sees buildings such as this by Voysey as being a precursor of Modernist architecture. Architecture of this style was produced by Herbert Luck North in north Wales and on occasions by Clough Williams-Ellis in his designs for council smallholdings adapted by Montgomeryshire County Council. This style was developed by the Garden City movement and was widely used on Welsh Garden villages and housing schemes until after the second World War. At Harlech the architect George Walton, a Glasgow architect, better known for his Art Nouveau architecture, was to design Wern Fawr in 1908 and also the St Davids Hotel Harlech (1907–11), but burnt down in 1922
Cardiff architecture of the Victorian and early 20th centuries
An architect who made a notable contribution to the public and commercial architecture of Cardiff was Edwin Seward. In 1875, he became part of the James, Seward and Thomas Partnership. In 1880 Seward won a competition for the design of the Cardiff Free Library, which consisted of a Library, Museum and Schools for Science and Art. The first phase was completed in 1882, but it was not finally completed until 1896. . In 1881 Seward enlarged the Cardiff Union Workhouse with a new entrance building on the Cowbridge Road frontage with a 3-storey tower and clock face, still in a late Gothic revival style. This building was to become the St David’s Hospital. This was also the style Seward adopted for the Cardiff Royal Infirmary of 1883
Seward’s next building, the Cardiff Coal Exchange in Butetown was built between 1883 and 1888 and it is moving more towards a Baroque revival style, although Newman calls it a debased French Renaissance style. In 1894 Seward produced his Dream of the Future for Cardiff, which appeared in the Western Mail in February 1894 and also plans for Cardiff Museum. This, however, was overtaken by the development of Cathays Park starting in 1905, for which he did not get a commission. In 1895 he designed the Morgan Arcade in Cardiff and the following year the Turner Gallery at Penarth. Finally in 1902-3 he was responsible for the monumental Swansea Docks Trust Office now Morgans Hotel, Swansea.
Earlier 20th-century architecture
Baroque Revival architecture
aroque Revival architecture is variously described as Neo-Baroque and Edwardian Baroque, and is paralleled in France by Beaux-Arts architecture. The style is also called Wrenaissance, acknowledging a debt to Sir Christopher Wren. In Wales the style starts appearing in the 1890s and was used for major public architecture, the newly founded universities and commercial buildings. It reflected the considerable wealth generated in this period, particularly from coal mining and also the growth of Welsh National Identity. The first buildings in the newly planned Cathays Park in Cardiff, described as the finest civic centre in the British Isles were the Cardiff Town Hall, later City Hall and the Law Courts, based on plans drawn up in 1897 and built between 1901 and 1905 to designs by Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards. Newman sums up the buildings as swaggering Baroque .. setting a new standard setting a new standard for the emergence of the Edwardian grand style for public buildings in Great Britain. No Victorian architect had hitherto demonstrated such mastery of Continental Baroque, in this case the Baroque of South Germany and Austria, combined with the Neo-Baroque of Charles Garniers’ Paris Opera. The setting is given opulence by the use of Portland Stone for the facades. The National Museum of Wales was added to this grouping in the modified American Neo-Barogue or Beaux-Arts style by the London architects Smith and Brewer and later extended by the Welsh architects T. Alwyn Lloyd and Alex Gordon.
The Baroque Revival style was also used for a range of other public buildings, banks and schools and universities. A refined example of this style was used by Alfred Cross for the Edward Davies Building at Aberystwyth University, was the first purpose-built chemical laboratory in a British university. It was opened in 1907 by Lord Asquith and remained a functioning Chemistry Department until 1988. It now serves as the School of Art Building. F Inigo Thomas also remodelled Ffynone House at Newchapel in Pembrokeshire in a neo-Baroque in 1902-7 with massive rusticated quoining added to the facade. The house had originally been built by John Nash in 1792-7.
One of the earliest examples in Wales of the Baroque revival or Wrenaissance style to appear in Wales is the Barry Dock Offices built for David Davies as the offices for the Barry Docks & Railway Company, and was part of the scheme for the development of Barry Docks. It was constructed between 1897 and 1900 The architect was Arthur E. Bell. A very similar building, which appears to be copying the Barry Offices on a lesser scale to this is the Stiwt or Rhosllannerchrugog Miners’ Institute, close to Wrexham, which was built much later, between 1924 and 1926 by the local architects John Owen and F A Roberts. In Barry the Docks Office was followed in 1903-8 by the Town Hall which was built by the architects Charles E Hutchinson and E Harding Payne in red brick and lavish Bath Stone adjoined by a severn bay public library with the centre three bays defined by giant Ionic pilasters. Equally ambitious but on a smaller scale is the red brick and limestone Town Hall by F A Roberts at Mold in Flintshire.
Baroque revival was also a favoured style for bank architecture. An example is the former North and South Wales Bank, now HSBC in Aberystwyth. This was by Woodfalland Eccles of Liverpool and was built in 1908-9. Three bay frontage, with a recessed centre framed columns and topped by a brocken curved pediment.
An example of the use of the American Beaux-Arts style is Howells (now House of Frazer) department store in St Mary’s Street. This was the work of Sir Percy Thomas in 1928–30. It makes use of Erectheum Ionic columns with a rounded corner and a memorable relief sculpture frieze designed by Thomas which symbolises the drapery trade.
Garden villages
Garden Village/Acton Gate, Wrexham. The development of Garden Village began with the purchase of some 200 acres (81 hectares) of land from Sir Foster Cunliffe near to the estate of Acton by the Welsh Town Planning and Housing Trust Limited. The intention was to provide affordable housing to workers coming to Wrexham to work in the expanding industries of coal and iron. Gresford Colliery had recently been opened where it was expected that approximately 3,000 men would be employed in the next two years. A Co-partnership Housing Society was set up in 1913 called Wrexham Tenants Limited, with Lord Kenyon, Mr. David Davies, M.P., and others as Directors to build the houses, while the Trust would build the roads and supervise the development of the estate. The plan was drawn up on an axial layout by the architect G. L. Cunliffe. In the first year, 44 properties were completed;numbers 63–69 Acton Gate, numbers 149–167, Chester Road (originally called Bryn Acton) and Cunliffe Walk. These first house were designed by Sutcliffe and the remaining 205 by Thomas Alwyn Lloyd, architect to the trust.
Hardwick Garden Village, Chepstow. Built for shipyard workers c. 1913–19 for local shipyard workers by Dunn, Watson and Curtis Green. Similar to other garden villages with symmetrical groupings, with pairs of gables set either together or wide apart and cat slide roofs and concrete block walls, now mainly rendered, and brick chimney stacks.
1913 Machynlleth Garden Village, Powys. Thirteen terraced houses.:157
1913–1914 Wrexham Garden Village, 205 houses.
c. 1914 Llanidloes garden suburb, Powys:44
1915–c. 1925 Barry Garden Suburb, Vale of Glamorgan:151
1920–1923 Rhiwbina Garden Village, Cardiff:296
1936 Trebeferad Land Settlement Scheme, Boverton, Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan. Housing intended to be a new village for miners resettled from the South Wales Coalfield.:412
1936 Fferm Goch, Penllyn, Vale of Glamorgan. 34 Semi-detached houses for unemployed miners.:503
1951 Llwynygog Forest Village, Staylittle, Hafren Forest, Powys. Housing for Forestry Commission workers.
Inter-war architecture
Hilling, writing in 1976, remarks that in Wales the interwar period is almost devoid of significantly progressive buildings and the abstract Neo-classicism of those public building that were erected had more in common with the architecture of Albert Speer and the Nazi and Fascist architecture. The Blackwood Miner’s Institute built in 1925, for the Oakdale colliery in Monmouthshire shows the transition of Baroque revival architecture to the Art Deco style.
The leading Welsh architect of the inter-War years was Sir Percy Thomas. After returning from the War After the War he returned to Cardiff. He was commissioned by David Davies, 1st Baron Davies of Llandinam, to design the Temple of Peace in Cathays Park. He established himself as a leading designer of Civic and University buildings. His work included Swansea Guildhall, which was built between 1930 and 1934, and includes the City Hall and the Brangwyn Hall and work on the campus at Aberystwyth University
The Burton menswear store in Abergavenny is a notable example of Art Deco. Built in 1937, it is a Grade II* listed building.
In Ammanford the impressive classical Miner’s Welfare Hall, now the Miner’s Theatre was built to the designs of J.O. Parry, around 1935. Classical front in brick with giant Ionic columns is mixed with modernist fenestration and detailing
Art Deco and international Modernist school of architecture
Examples of Art Deco buildings in Wales are limited largely to Cinemas and houses. Possibly the best example a cinema is the recently closed Pola Cinema in Berriew Street, Welshpool, with it attractive curved frontage and good stained glass, which was completed in 1938. An important house in the International Modernist style is the Villa Marina, set on the seafront at Llandudno. This striking building was designed by Harry Weedon in 1936 well known as a cinema architect. It has been recently been restored.
A particularly striking example of Art Deco architecture is Penarth Pier. The original cast iron pier was designed by H. F. Edwards in 1892-4. In 1927-8 a Pier Pavilion was built in Ferro concrete to designs by L.G. Mouchel and Partners. Mouchel was founded in Briton Ferry now in Neath Port Talbot in 1897 by Louis Gustave Mouchel, who arrived in the UK from France with a licence to use the new technique of reinforcing concrete using iron bars that had been developed by François Hennebique. was a pioneer in the use of re-enforced concrete, although the pavilion was built after Mouchel’s death. The pavilion has topee shaped dome lets and a semicircular Tuscan colonnade.
An even more striking example of Mouchel’s use of Ferro-Concrete is the White Bridge at Pontypridd. This was built in 1907, to designs by P R A Willoughby, surveyor to Pontypridd Urban District Council, in association with L G Mouchel & Partners. The contractor was Watkin Williams & Page. Its river span, of 35metres, was when built, the longest reinforced concrete arch in Britain.
The architecture of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis
Clough Williams-Ellis is primarily remembered as the creator of Portmeirion. While at first he established himself as a London-based architect he was to establish himself as major figure in the development of Welsh architecture in the first half of the 20th century, working in a variety of styles and designing buildings ranging from Country houses to workers housing. One of his earliest designs of 1905 was for a pair of Welsh labourers cottages in a vernacular style with end gable chimneys which imitate the 16th-century Snowdonia Houses In 1909 he was to design a house in an advanced Arts and Crafts style for Cyril Joynson at Brecfa in Breconshire In 1913–14 he was to be resonsilble for the rebuilding of Llangoed Hall in Breconshire, one of the very last country houses to be built before the First World War. While it is a mixture of a number of historic styles it was a modern features with elements such as the chimneys derived from the work of Lutyens Other work in Wales by Clough Williams-Ellis includes the Festiniog Memorial Hospital of 1922, Pentrefelin Village Hall, the Conway Fall Cafe. At Aberdaron he designed the Old Post Office in a vernacular style in 1950. An important later commission was the redesign and rebuilding of Nantclwyd Hall in Denbighshire Clough Williams- Ellis was equally capable in working in the Modernist idiom of the interwar years. This is well demonstrated by the recently restored Caffi Moranedd at Cricieth and the now demolished Snowdon Summit Station of 1934, which was demolished in 2007. However, his more memorable creation in Wales is the capriccio town of Portmeirion on the coast of the Llyn near to Portmadoc. This is notable not only as an architectural composition, but also because Clough Williams- Ellis was able to preserve fragments from other now demolished buildings from Wales and Cheshire. These include the plaster ceiling from Emral Hall
Post-war architecture in Wales
In the years following the 2nd World War resources mainly went on the provision of housing. During these years of austerity some public buildings were constructed including the village hall or Neuadd Tysul at Llandysul in Ceredigion of 1955. This was the work of John Davies the county surveyor. The concrete frontage has been enlivened by the crow stepped gables and the attractive Festival of Britain lettering.
During the 1960s local Government started to commission some notable buildings. Foremost amongst these is the Wrexham Swimming baths of 1965–7 by F.D. Williamson associates of Bridgend. The baths have a giant parabolic roof covers three swimming pool with the glassed end with the diving boards rising to four stories. These architects were also responsible for the Sport Wales National Centre of 1971 in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. In Brecon the County Library of 1969 by J.A. McRobbie, is a well designed Brutalist building in Ship Street, but its position is hemmed in and led to destruction of other older buildings in the street
In the Post War Period many major building projects started to be awarded to Welsh architectural firms. Leading firms were Percy Thomas Partnership and Alex Gordon and Partners in the south, and Colwyn Foulkes Partnership and Bowen Dann Davies of Colwyn Bay in the north. The Percy Thomas Partnership lost its identity when it was forced into liquidation in 2004. It has since become part of Capita Symonds The first true skyscraper in Wales was the Capital Tower in Cardiff. It was completed in 1969–70 and providing 190,000 sq ft (18,000 m2) of floor space over 25 storeys. It was originally known as Pearl House and was designed by the London firm Sir John Burnet and Partners which became Burnet Tait & Lorne.
Architecture of local government reform after 1974
The 1974 Re-organisation of Local Government in Wales led to a rash of vastly ambitious building programme. This mainly centred on the building of new headquarters for the County Councils to assert their identity and the building of Leisure and Arts centres. The subsequent further reform of Local Government, particularly in 1996, has made some of these developments look unnecessary and superfluous.
1980–2000
A notable project at the end of the 20th century was the creation of the National Botanic Garden of Wales. The most striking feature of this was the Great Glasshouse. Designed 1995-6 by Foster and Partners and built 1997-9. This is the largest single span glasshouse in the world 110 metres long and 60 metres wide. The roof an elliptical torus is carried on twenty-four elliptical arches and covers 3,500 square metres, and provides Wales with a building of international note.
21st-century architecture
Ushering in the 21st-century architecture in Wales was Jan Kaplicky’s of Future Systems Malator at Nolton in Pembrokeshire. The site overlooks St Bride’s bay and is within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The house was built in 1998 and is a notable example of Eco architecture. It is excavated into the sloping ground and is turf roofed. The house appears as a low hillock with only a metal flue rising from the grassThe seaward elevation is entirely of glass. Steel framed construction with a ring beam that supports the roof.
At Bridge End the Bus Station by Gillespies of 2004 with its cylindrical tower and clock face, reminiscent of the architecture of the 1950s and 60’s, would best be described as Retro style.
Currently the tallest building in Wales is The Tower, Meridian Quay at Swansea, which is 107 meters high and completed in 2010. The tower has 29 storeys, double the number of the previous tallest building in Swansea, the BT Tower. Most of The Tower houses residential apartments. The design was by Latitude Architects and elliptical shape of the building is reminiscent of the work of the Austrian architect Heinz Tesar. The only other high rise buildings in Wales are in Cardiff. The tallest residential block in Cardiff, completed in 2005 is Altolusso by Holder Mathias architects with Ove Arup & Partners as the constructional engineer. It is adjacent to the Meridian Gate, Cardiff which is a residential hotel completed in 2008.
Millennium Centre
The most striking building of 21st-century Wales is the Millennium centre on Cardiff Bay. The Centre was designed by Jonathan Adams, of local practice Percy Thomas Architects Wales Millennium Centre (Welsh: Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru) is an arts centre located in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The site covers a total area of 4.7 acres (1.9 ha). Phase 1 of the building was opened during the weekend of the 26–28 November 2004 and phase 2 opened on 22 January 2009 with an inaugural concert. The centre has hosted performances of opera, ballet, dance, comedy and musicals.
The Centre comprises one large theatre and two smaller halls with shops, bars and restaurants. It houses the national orchestra and opera, dance, theatre and literature companies, a total of eight arts organisations in residence. It is also home to the Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre. The main theatre, the Donald Gordon Theatre, has 1,897 seats, the BBC Hoddinott Hall 350 and the Weston Studio Theatre 250.
The Senedd
The Senedd houses the debating chamber and committee rooms of the Welsh Assembly. It was completed in 2006. The building faces south west over Cardiff Bay, it has a glass façade around the entire building and is dominated by a steel roof and wood ceiling. It has three floors, the first and second floors are accessible is to the public and the ground floor is a private area for officials. The building was designed to be as open and accessible as possible, the architects, the Richard Rogers Partnership (RRP) said The building was not to be an insular, closed edifice. Rather it would be a transparent envelope, looking outwards to Cardiff Bay and beyond, making visible the inner workings of the Assembly and encouraging public participation in the democratic process. The main area in the building is the debating chamber, called the Siambr, including a public viewing gallery. Other areas of the building are the Neuadd, which is the main reception area on the first floor and the Oriel on the second floor. The three committee rooms and the Cwrt are on the ground floor.
Source from Wikipedia