Capel y Groes | Cilycwm
The adaptation of a grade II listed chapel for use as a sustainable community hub
Menter Cilycwm encourages community engagement in arts, music, nature and education; whilst expanding Welsh language activities and facilitating local initiatives.
The group acquired Capel y Groes and identified a need to renew and improve the building facilities for the community. The proposals sensitively restore and enhance the Grade II listed buildings, preserving their distinctive pink lime-washed façades and historic character. A new flexible, multi-purpose space is created within the main hall that will support a diverse range of activities, and a high-quality new extension accommodates essential facilities including toilets, kitchenette and storage, while improving accessibility to all areas. Clad in Corten steel, the new element is a subservient yet carefully crafted addition that references the agricultural heritage that is intrinsic to the local community and the wider rural landscape character. The design combines modern functionality with a respect for the building’s historical and cultural significance to provide a sustainable and vibrant community hub in the heart of the village.
The brief for the project evolved through an iterative design process and extensive consultation with trustees and the local community. This facilitated a thorough understanding of the needs of end users and a strong sense of shared ownership throughout the process. An initial project viability report also provided an evidence base for the project, strengthening Menter Cilycwm’s position to seek funding from a range of providers.
Capel y Groes and Ty Capel, both Grade II listed, are in urgent need of repair. They are important buildings in the community, being a rare example of an unaltered Gothic chapel from 1860. From the 16th century, Cilycwm played a crucial role in the movement of livestock with drovers leading animals along well-established tracks to markets in England. The village still bears traces of this history including the cobbled gutters used to feed the animals gathered in the streets. Today agriculture remains a vital aspect of local livelihood, with farm buildings dispersed across the immediate landscape.
The chapel is a relatively simple structure with a single interior space. An east-facing entrance features an inset lobby underneath a raked gallery above. The auditorium is characterised by a raked floor that slopes towards the pulpit at the west end and the space is divided by low level pews of a simple form and appearance. The chapel is constructed of local field and riverstone rubble and covered by a low-pitch slate roof with decoratively fretted bargeboards. The north, east and south elevations are finished in a pink limewash that has given the chapel its distinctive local identity.
Ty Capel, immediately adjoining the chapel and subservient in scale, comprises an entrance hall with staircase and principal rooms stacked front to back. At first floor, a single open space is useful gathering space but currently inaccessible to those with mobility issues.
The proposals focus on restoration of the historic fabric, ensuring the buildings are safeguarded for the future while improving accessibility and functionality. Repairs are to be carried out on a like-for-like basis using traditional materials in conjunction with the removal of incongruous modern additions. One of the greatest challenges is to improve flexibility and usability of the chapel whilst preserving its character and significance. The main hall is to be adapted by removing the raked floor and a portion of the fixed pews. A Historic Impact Assessment guided a strategy for the adjustments, with a portion of the pews and raked floor to be retained beneath the gallery to present evidence of the former layout. The pulpit and wall panelling provide further interpretation of the original space.
Currently the chapel is accessed via steps at the main east entrance. To enhance accessibility whilst preserving the integrity of the principal historic façade, a new opening is to be formed into the main hall from Ty Capel. A circulation spine is routed along the north edge of Ty Capel to minimise impact on the rooms of greatest significance and hierarchy, whilst a lift incorporated into the new extension will address the inaccessibility of Ty Capel’s upper floor. Upper storey meeting rooms benefit from long-range landscape views to the west and an abundance of natural light in contrast to the inward-looking nature of the historic chapel.
The new extension is to be subservient yet complementary to the historic buildings, offering a high-quality, unobtrusive addition that enhances the sites over all presentation. The design extends Ty Capel in a simple and clear fashion, continuing the profile and massing of its pitched roof and rectangular plan, but expressed unmistakably as a new addition, clad in sinusoidal-profiled Corten steel that references the agricultural aesthetic of its rural setting. The ridge line is broken by the introduction of a flat rooflight. The subsequent reduction in height helps to express the extension as a subservient addition whilst maximising the width of plan available for essential ancillary facilities that are vital to the sustainable use of the community hub.
The use of Corten steel draws upon local agricultural precedents while providing a weathered, evolving and natural patina that is responsive to environment and climate. The rich red hues resonate with both the iron deposits found in the chapel stonework and the bracken-covered hillsides throughout autumn and winter. During community consultation, local residents expressed a strong preference for this finish over other potential cladding materials.
Vertical louvres are suspended over sections of glazing and help to introduce texture and layering to the façade, breaking down its visual mass and providing solar shading to the highly glazed entrance lobby. Great care has been taken to express the detailing of the extension in a minimalist and crafted manner. This is of great importance, ensuring the building presents as a ‘hidden gem’ within the village, with an elevated quality of finish that is appropriate to its status in the community and importance as an extension of a protected historic asset.
