Penllergare Visitor Centre | Swansea
The embedding of a new visitor centre, café and community facilities within a grade II registered historic park and garden
Delicately nestled into the side of its valley, the visitor centre at Penllergare Valley Woods is a relatively unassuming structure that in conjunction with its landscaping, presents a new public facing welcome to this site of ancient woodland, pasture, open heathland and lakes.
Despite its proximity to the M4, the interventions shelter the transition into a picturesque landscape carved out by the River Llan and shaped in the mid-nineteenth century by the esteemed botanist and pioneering photographer, John Dillwyn Llewelyn. The building provides new café, interpretation and visitor facilities, set around an external terrace, with framed views over the valley and Upper Lake in the basin below. It is inherently at one with its context, enabling the historic composition, that is of national importance, to be accessed, explored and reinterpreted by new generations.
The addition of the new visitor centre at Penllergare Valley Woods is the natural evolution of years of work undertaken by the volunteers of the Penllergare Trust, who have progressively reclaimed the designed landscape of John Dillwyn Llewellyn following decades of neglect. His creation of lakes, waterfalls and exotic planting, allied with innovation – recorded by his very early mid-nineteenth century photographic records – embodied a unique and valued environment within this small stretch of the Afon Llan Valley, north of Swansea.
The composition of the landscape was formerly focussed around a country house developed between 1835 and 1836. This was demolished in 1961 to afford the construction of council offices, leading to the site becoming somewhat fragmented. This was compounded when the building was subsequently demolished in favour of a new housing development. Whilst a small café kiosk building and toilets provided visitor facilities on the site prior to the construction of the new visitor centre, they delivered a relatively underwhelming and utilitarian welcome to the woodland – facing away from the arrival car park and struggling to facilitate the work of the volunteers. That said, it did provide a much valued, covered terrace with seating overlooking the immediate surrounds of manicured woodland.
Having investigated the potential for extending the existing building or developing a new building, the proposed location for the new interventions were designed to frame the terrace by siting the new café building to its northern side and linking it to the existing kiosk with a natural stone wall. This has provided both a clear separation between the noise and vehicles of the car park and M4 to the north and west, and a method for addressing the utilitarian appearance of the retained kiosk. The wall provides a clear and identifiable point of arrival, derived from and linking to the language of the walled garden that was concurrently developed by the Trust as part of a series of wider landscape improvements, also funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. The entrance gateway is sealed by a large, sliding, oak door that sets the tone for the site and its qualities, further enhanced by associated interpretive installations.
The interventions successfully connect into the historic pathways in this area of the parkland, providing information around wider linkages throughout the registered park and garden, and giving the previously fragmented site has a new focal point. The building facilitates the interpretation of surrounding ecology with planting continuing to soften its setting, including a green roof that also serves to control and manage water run-off. Perhaps the best measure of its success is its use by the surrounding community, providing a quality environment that has attracted new volunteers to the Trust whilst meeting the needs of the users of the parkland.
From the existing, expanded car park, the principal approach to the new building is through a wide doorway with associated panelled oak door, set within a random rubble stone wall. This frames a view down to the entrance of the new visitor centre, set at the level of the existing terrace, and defined by its taller central volume with associated, subservient wings either side. Clad in black, stained, vertical larch boarding, the central volume contains the reception and servery to the building, with the space flowing through to a cantilevered picture window on the east elevation that celebrates the view over the river valley. This sits on a rendered wall that mitigates the change in level and will gradually become colonised by vegetation over time.
The volumes either side are clad in rough sawn larch, with café seating to the south side spilling out onto the terrace, and further, more intimate seating areas to the north linking with the surrounding woodland via further framed views. Adjacent to this the working areas of the kitchen and associated store are easily accessed internally, with deliveries from the adjacent car park. The roof of the visitor centre presents a further elevation, being visible from elevated locations in the parkland. Together with solar panels that provide the majority of the electrical energy for the building, it is finished with a wildflower turf, bedding it down in its landscape.
The former kiosk has been repurposed as an office and store, with additional toilet facilities als having been incorporated, whilst the extended terrace continues to provide much valued outdoor seating space, enhanced by the presence of local flora and fauna.
The new visitor centre at Penllergare Valley Woods demonstrates the sensitivity and contextual understanding required to construct buildings in environments of historical and ecological significance. The building holds a sense of identity and presence on arrival, whilst placing focus on the special characteristics and importance of the surrounding site. It enhances its interpretation and understanding for visitors, providing a focal point for the community and volunteers, that improves both their health and well-being.
