076 GOING UNDERGROUND


Clockwise The potential plans would see the Rhondda Valley become home to the longest digital art gallery space, a viewing tower would offer stunning valley views, the building’s exoskeleton communicating the fluid nature of trains in motion


CASE STUDY


ABANDONED WELSH RAIL TUNNEL TURNED ART GALLERY


An abandoned, two-mile long railway tunnel could end up becoming the world’s longest digital art gallery and performance space, if plans drawn up by Scott Brownrigg and tourism consultant Steven & Associates come to fruition. If so, the 130-year-old Rhondda Tunnel could transform this Welsh valley’s fortunes through cultural and eco-tourism. The proposal adds to original suggestions that the tunnel become a footpath and cycling route. It retains that green and safe walk and cycleway, connecting the communities at either side, but adds a visitor centre at the western end, which is accessed in the village of Blaengwynfi, offering art galleries, café, external performance space and digital theatre. At the eastern entrance, in the village of Blaencwym, a new hotel would provide guests with a unique experience of the valleys, with an exoskeleton of digitally constructed timber ribs, which changes across the length of the building, evoking the flickering movement of trains as they pass the eye. Meanwhile, the gallery design references both local rail and mining heritage, with


scorched black timber cladding, elevated above the slopes of the tunnel entrance on slender stilts. The tunnel is also proposed to feature a 40m high viewing tower rising out of the top of a 60ft ventilation shaft, offering visitors stunning vistas of the countryside. Welsh-based digital arts


programme Lumen has signed up as potential curator of installations to spark the imagination around themes of movement and engineering. It is estimated that this unusual combination of culture, ecology, tourism and green infrastructure could boost overnight stays by 40,000 annually, and generate 150,000 day trips, bringing an additional £16m annually to the local economy.


The scheme was given a boost in December 2021 when the then transport secretary Grant Shapps agreed to transfer ownership of the tunnel from National Highways to the Welsh Government.


Client Undisclosed joint venture public/private partnership


Architects Scott Brownrigg


Tourism consultant Steven & Associates


THIS SPREAD: SCOTT BROWNRIGG


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129