This project for United Welsh Housing Association in partnership with Caerphilly County Borough Council, is the conversion of a Grade II* Listed Baptist Chapel into a new library, Customer First Centre and worship space, situated in Bargoed, South Wales. Located on a steeply sloping site, the design preserves the major spaces with extensive features, whilst providing all of the ancillary and back-of-house spaces required by the library, the Customer First facility and the worship space. An existing extension to the rear of the chapel was removed and replaced with a new, 7-storeys extension to house the additional accommodation. This extension provides a ‘second-front’ to the library, making this public building accessible to all, and fits in with ‘Bargoed’s Big Idea’, the towns regeneration action plan.
Since completion, the building has won several awards including: Constructing Excellence Wales, ‘Project of the Year’; RTPI Cymru ‘Wales Planning Award’; UK Regeneration & Renewal – heritage category, and was shortlisted for the RIBA Welsh Architecture Awards in 2013.
This project for United Welsh Housing Association in partnership with Caerphilly County Borough Council, is the conversion of a Grade II* Listed Baptist Chapel into a new library, Customer First Centre and worship space, situated in Bargoed, South Wales. Located on a steeply sloping site, the design preserves the major spaces with extensive features, whilst providing all of the ancillary and back-of-house spaces required by the library, the Customer First facility and the worship space. An existing extension to the rear of the chapel was removed and replaced with a new, 7-storeys extension to house the additional accommodation. This extension provides a ‘second-front’ to the library, making this public building accessible to all, and fits in with ‘Bargoed’s Big Idea’, the towns regeneration action plan.
Since completion, the building has won several awards including: Constructing Excellence Wales, ‘Project of the Year’; RTPI Cymru ‘Wales Planning Award’; UK Regeneration & Renewal – heritage category, and was shortlisted for the RIBA Welsh Architecture Awards in 2013.