RESILIENT HAY Vertical Studio 2014
Introduction Introduction
Hay-on-Wye
The Resilient Hay Vertical Studio 2014, run by Coombs Jones architects+makers at the Welsh School of Architecture, asked students to imagine a future for a small town in Mid-Wales over the next 20 years. Our design research involved a live client group and will inform the development of a town plan. The aim is to present our projects in an exhibition in the town on the completion of the studio.
Hay-on-Wye (or in Welsh Y Gelli Gandryll), is a small market town in Powys, Wales, adjacent to the English border. Hay has approximately 1,900 inhabitants. Lying in the Wye Valley on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park, Hay was traditionally a sheep farming town and a stop-over for those travelling to Brecon.
Why small towns? A fifth of the population of Europe lives in small towns of under 50,000 people. In many cases, these small settlements and market towns have a high historical and cultural value and a strong sense of place and distinctiveness. Many of these towns have experienced a period of stagnation caused by a decline in the rural economy. The draw of larger towns and cities where employment possibilities are greater has led to out-migration, often resulting in aging populations that can be provincial in their outlook. A decline in the economic prosperity of towns leaves them with limited capacity to manage change, regenerate and attract investment. The complications of building in historic town centres existing buildings, conservation areas, listed building consent, and limited plot sizes - deter developers who favour more cost-effective peripheral areas. The result has been peripheral housing, shopping and industrial growth, while town centres exist in a state of preservation. These are uncertain times for small towns. The economic decline of recent years has hit many town hard; shops have closed, tourist numbers decreased and financial assistance from central government has slumped. Rising energy and fuel prices and the increasing cost of food and the cost of living present serious challenges for rural towns. A major rethink of the future of small towns is underway. The Welsh Government has identified “the physical quality of the town and its rural area” as a key component in successful, dynamic small towns. In its recent regeneration strategy, it aims for “vital and vibrant places”. But what is the feeling on the ground? How do the people who live in small towns see their future? The vertical studio will work with the people of a small town to suggest alternative futures for Hay on Wye, a town of 1,700 people within the Brecon Beacons National Park. Well known as ‘the town of books’ and host of the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, the town is also an important gateway to the landscapes of the National Park.
In 1963, Richard Booth opened the first second hand bookshop in Hay. The town was an ideal location for an international trade in books- close to Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff for local trade, far enough from London to escape the capital’s influence, and with easy links to Ireland. By the 1970’s over 30 bookshops had opened in the town and at its peak there were over 40. The spin-off Hay Literary Festival, started in 1988, has an international reputation and attracts speakers and visitors from around the world. The festival attracted over 200,000 attendees in 2010 and over the course of a year the town and festival attract half a million visitors. Despite a strong theme and sense of distinctiveness, like many small towns Hay has suffered from the 2008 recession. Dependance on tourism generated by ‘the town of books’ reputation and the literary festival has led to some shops closing or reducing their opening hours as visitor numbers reduce. The growth of digital publishing has further impacted, with signs around the town proclaiming it a ‘kindle free zone’. In response to these threats, the town has diversified, with a growth in businesses offering good quality local produce and new businesses aiming at the outdoor leisure market. Our task is to explore how the town might focus its efforts to address these and future challenges and how it can maintain a sense of distinctiveness in an increasingly competitive global market.
Our client We worked alongside Hay Together, a community group dedicated to promoting and improving Hay’s well-being and aiding the development of the community. Their aims are to: •
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encourage pride in the community by making the most of the towns local, national and international reputation as a centre of books, arts and recreation. make the community more resilient in uncertain economic times. encourage all sections of the community to reduce their ecological footprint by developing low impact and low carbon ways of life. include and give voice to the passion, enthusiasms and skills of all sections of the community. provide a democratic framework within which people may participate fully in the decisionmaking processes that affect their daily lives. build new and innovative partnerships between the community and the statutory authorities so as to make best use of available resources. plan and carry through both short and long term projects that will be of benefit to everyone in our community now and in the future.
Visions of Hay-on-Wye The visit: 12th May
Strategy 2034
The vertical studio commenced with a visit to Hayon-Wye to explore the town. This enabled students to gain an understanding of the challenges and to meet with local people and community groups.
Returning to the WSA, the studio split into groups to develop different themes unearthed during the visit, before undertaking design studies in locations around the town. In particular the project probed the potential tensions, creative and otherwise, of combining a sustainable and innovative approach to design with a more orthodox conservation-led strategy.
On the day we were met by members of Hay Together, Hay Town Council, the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, a county councillor and a local Architect, also a member of the town’s Transition group. After guided walks of the town, students explored a number of themes to help the group get to grips with the town and understand it in detail. Each student was be given a theme to explore in through photography and drawing, producing a 20 page 20x20cm booklet, excerpts of which are illustrated on the following pages.
Theme 1: energy This group looked at how the town may develop if energy independence were taken as its goal for 2034. Examples such as the Wadebridge Renewable Energy Network and Freiberg in Germany will be used as a starting point for our designs. What would it mean for the town and its buildings if energy were the sole focus of the town?
Theme 2: food A small town with a rural hinterland such as Hay has the potential to be fully self sufficient for food. This is how market towns traditionally operated, with the town reliant on a radius of countryside to provide food for the townspeople. However, our needs and want have changed; how would the town and its surroundings evolve to achieve self sufficiency? The group started out by exploring initiatives such as Incredible Edible to see how small towns are aiming to achieve this goal.
Theme 3: literary legacy This scenario assumes that the town pursues its distinctive feature- the town of books. With the impact of tablets, e-readers and amazon, the town will need to broaden its approach to literature. Exploring projects such as the Reading Room, Rotterdam, community libraries and storytelling centres, this approach will imagine what the town may be like it if fully embraces literature, literacy and the arts.
History
Landscape
Books
Material
Streets
People
Uses
Green space
Edges
Detail
Energy
Food
3. INDIVIDUAL ACTION- Encouraging residents to grow their own fruit and vegetabes and to keep livestock A monthly town magazine featuring recipes using seasonal fruit and vegetables that can easily be grown would encourage this acti on. Class in cooking and growing your own produce could also be held at the new community centre thats also part of our proposal. Space needed to keep a chicken- 10 squared feet for outdoor run space, 4 quare feet coop space
*Guttering- Automatic watering *Growing on window ledges *Vertical growth- Saves space *Growing in hanging baskets *Growing in polytunnels- Protects quality and yield *Growing on flat roofs *Keeping chickens- Egg supply
4. CREATING A GREATER SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN THE TOWN The main focus for this is based around the proposal for a new community centre for the town, a large farmers market running around the castle area and community allotments by the primary school. The school would have an active involvment and classes and other food related activities could be run in the community centre. The community centre is shown on the panorama in purple. The larger market running around the castle ground and surrouding area would also help to bring the community together and to also encourage residents to sell their own produce. The buildings highlighted on the panorama in the red colour shown below are the old market buildings that we are proposing could be re-used to also include the market. Buildings being re-used for the market New community centre
Literary Legacy
Due to the closures of bookshops every year in the town of Hay, with ebooks and big companies like Amazon to blame, the town’s stature of the ‘town of books’ will soon be a distant memory. Over three years between 2010 and 2013, 5 of Hay’s 30 Bookshops closed down. If this rate of closure continues, by 2020 only 15 bookshops will be left; and by 2030, none. Therefore our aim will be to help sustain the bookshops, and attempt to keep them from closure for as long as possible. Our second aim will be to expand the town’s reputation for literature, and not let it be restricted by physical books. The Hub:
Centred around the centre of town. These include Writing cabins/ Editing studios/ Publishers and Booksellers.
The Tower:
A Central tower will replace the Hay library, with reading spots spread around the town.
Hay University:
The specialized Uni will be situated on the outskirts of Hay.
The Hub
The hub will form a unique ecosystem of resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities within Hay, for each stage of the book’s lifetime. From it’s conception by the writer, to it’s sale from within one of Hay’s many bookshops. Writers and Editors will have the opportunity of hiring spaces within the town or within it’s beautiful surrounding areas. While publishers can operate within the town’s industrial area and form partnership with writers/ edritors and the booksellers within the town. Over time, the hope is to expand this unique ecosystem of the Hay hub worldwide, and become a Mekkah for the world’s best in literature.
The Tower
The Tower
Reading Points
The tower will consist of a number of reading points distributed all around the town, with a central point in the centre of town which will act as the town’s library. These reading points will provide free wifi for ebook readers, and a book sharing scheme where people can donate books, and take something they fancy. While the Hay tower will act similar to a atm machine, by inserting you library card and choosing a book to borrow on a interactive screen.
Hay University
To expand Hay-on-Wye’s literacy legacy we plan to introduce a University to Hay-on-Wye, specialising in Literature. With courses ranging from English Literature, to publishing, to ebook manufacturing, our hope is that this University will become one of the best Universities in the county teaching Literature. The University will be placed on the outskirts of the town, and our hope is that this scheme will provide jobs for local people within the university, and bring a younger generation to live in Hay-on-Wye.
Students: Alessandro Carlucci Zambrano Charis Nika Deimante Auksoriute Elis Bedwyk Evan Phoenix Holly Cook Iliana Pastelli Laura Snape Louis Appleby Mirto Pitara Nicola Bagshaw
Tutors: Matthew Jones Steve Coombs