In October 2017 more than 60 experts and community organisations came together to brainstorm ideas in an event organised by the Design Commission for Wales, with the assistance of the Welsh School of Architecture. The outcome was the ‘Crucible’ report that envisaged the creation at Cyfarthfa of a national centre for industrial heritage.
Reborn
The story so far
The report was accepted unanimously by Merthyr Tydfil Council that agreed to commission a masterplan for the area. Following a competitive process Ian Ritchie Architects were appointed, leading an internationally renowned multi-disciplinary team.
In 2020 the team set out a radical vision for the area in The Cyfarthfa Plan. Merthyr Tydfil Council supported development of plans for Cyfarthfa and agreed in principle to transfer the castle and park to a new charitable enterprise – The Cyfarthfa Foundation – when appropriate.
In 2021 the Welsh Government agreed to fund the pre-development phase, seeing it as a pivotal project and a ‘discovery gateway’ in the emerging Valleys Regional Park.
The Plan
The Cyfarthfa Plan presented a high-level strategic, uninhibited vision for the Cyfarthfa area. The Foundation’s task now is to take inspiration from the strategic definition stage, and develop achievable, but aspirational, steps to bring about a transformation.
The Foundation will develop a project brief that defines a fundable and deliverable project, informed by the wider vision. We want it to be imaginative and inspiring, but also financially viable and sustainable for generations to come.
The Cyfarthfa Plan envisioned bold project ideas, some of which will be difficult to realise in the current financial climate. The Foundation’s job is to realise the steps to a national institution for Merthyr and Wales via achievable, affordable, project development.
A bold vision for Cyfarthfa and beyond
The Cyfarthfa Plan was commissioned in 2020 with a view to transforming a much-loved local museum and landmark into a museum and landscape fully worthy of its history and heritage and at a scale and quality that befits its significance.
This plan proposes part restoration and part adaptation of Cyfarthfa Castle to create a modern museum able to convey the story of this crucible of the industrial revolution and deploying new, exciting and immersive exhibition techniques to attract significantly more visitors a year than the current 60,000.
The plan also envisages the imaginative integration of heritage and contemporary art, presented in galleries dedicated to changing exhibitions of 21st century innovation in art and industry, as well as in the landscape.
The Cyfarthfa Plan presents a compelling vision for the future decades
It is a bold and aspirational vision and not a blueprint that will be implemented in every detail. We must be realistic and respond to the national and international political and economic climate. The plan will evolve as the environment changes and as we engage with stakeholders in the community. But the core themes will surely be durable.
The three themes that underlie the Cyfarthfa Plan are history and heritage, the natural environment and creativity. These inter-connecting themes, as well as drawing on the past, are also relevant to the pressing issues of today.
The natural environment
The Cyfarthfa Plan describes the environmental journey of this valley as one from ‘green to black to green again’ as the fortunes of key industries flowed and, eventually, ebbed away.
The spur of tragedy – most notably, the Aberfan disaster in 1966 - has already led to a substantial re-greening of many parts of the country, but this task of healing the environment has yet to be completed at Cyfarthfa.
The project can not only re-establish the coherence of the whole Cyfarthfa estate but also engage the community to give powerful expression to the ideals of the Wales’s ground-breaking Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.
Culture, Creativity and Social Renewal
This project has already drawn on the immense creativity of the architects and landscape architects and other disciplines that produced The Cyfarthfa Plan, with its abundance of ideas not only for physical development but also for education and engagement.
Since future generations will be at the heart of the Foundation’s mission, generous provision will have to be made to allow expansion of the educational service. It can also be a venue for events and conferences.
Social renewal cannot emerge from a set of instructions. Instead, the plan must be a source of inspiration, a spur to the energies and creativity of the community itself.
Sustainability
The Cyfarthfa Plan is a long-term strategic vision that will not only reveal the global importance of Merthyr Tydfil’s industrial past but also work in harmony with nature to transform the Cyfarthfa area.
The project will grow in parallel with the lives of the youngest generation as they grow into adults. It will be a major opportunity to focus the conversation on climate change to produce substantial benefits for the people of the town and Wales.
In the words of the Cyfarthfa Plan: ‘with an abundance of green spaces and natural, re-wilding environments on the doorstep, the area has multiple designated sites of environmental importance. We will create an exemplar project to demonstrate the force and effectiveness of Wales’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.’
