In this robust landscape, practitioners need an understanding of the sense of place, says Dafydd Tomos
From our base in mid-west Wales you can find pretty much every kind of landscape to suit just about every kind of weather and inclination. Within half an hour you could be climbing a craggy mountain, squelching your way across remote moorland wilderness, swimming in the sea, a river, a lake or underneath a waterfall, wandering through woods, exploring old mines and quarries, or ambling through gentle pasture land.
It is a landscape robust enough to take modern interventions. The scars of the old industries in the north and the south are slowly healing into the surrounding terrain. Part of this process lies in developing new buildings and structures on old sites, and where this is done with skill and care the sense of landscape is enhanced.
There is a growing demand for housing and much of the public sector’s building stock is in need of renewal or replacement. The most skilled practitioners can meet this growing demand with an understanding of the sense of place.
Dafydd Tomos is director at George + Tomos Architects, Machynlleth
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Purcell for Snowdonia National Park Authority.
Grimshaw for University of Bangor.
KKE Architects for St David's Hospice Care.