HEOL Y FFYNNON, BRECON

Working alongside Hale Construction, this locally significant project for Powys CC was an exciting opportunity to provide a high-quality, considered, residential development in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park. In partnership with the council’s housing department, we have developed a series of built forms intended to reflect clusters of local agricultural buildings located in the landscape, resulting in a development that is aesthetically familiar, sitting comfortably in the national park setting.

The project at Heol y Ffynnon is particularly strong in terms of its place-making attributes. This process of successful place-making started at the project outset and involved a thorough site and context analysis to better understand how the new proposal should sit within the existing community and architectural context. This process of analysis helped us to establish an appropriate architectural response to the site, ensuring our proposals sit easily within the context of the site. As such, we viewed the challenges of mature trees and hedgerow, as opportunities, turning these features into a virtue and adding value to the scheme, making ‘places’ whilst protecting valuable assets. Views to the Brecon Beacons were carefully considered. Dwellings were adapted in certain locations to include juliette balconies at first floor to take full advantage of this asset. A green ‘square’ sits at the heart of the Heol y Ffynnon scheme, overlooked by a variety of characterful house types, specifically designed to generate positive frontages. The ethos was also extended to the approach road where prominent dwellings, with multiple frontages act as gatehouses and markers to define the public realm.

Designed to conform to Powys’s Wood Encouragement Policy, local precedent will also be manifest in the detailing of the homes, with timber cladding, high-performance timber joinery and windows incorporated into the dwellings. Rather than a replication of pastiche historic features a contemporary language is proposed throughout. A limited palette of materials retains a consistency across the scheme, with soft red brick and untreated, locally sourced timber cladding.

All homes adopt a ‘fabric first approach’ achieving a dwelling emission rate approximately 17% above current Welsh Building Regulations Part L.

The provision of good quality housing will provide occupants with a desirable and sustainable place to live whilst improving their health and well-being which are fundamental milestones in achieving the goals of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act.

In the summer of 2019, the scheme successfully achieved planning permission with praise from local councillors. The Design Commission for Wales also reviewed the scheme and gave a favourable appraisal of the project. The build was undertaken by Hale Construction and will be handed over to Powys CC in June 2021.

“I think this is a wonderful proposal, I think it is inspirational…. I think the way is uses local materials, uses local students and talks about a circular economy is really important at this time…”

Cllr. Chris Coppock (speaking at planning committee)