Port Talbot School wins architecture award

Ysgol Bae Baglan designed by Architects Stride Treglown

The £40 million Ysgol Bae Baglan school in Port Talbot has won the National Eisteddfod of Wales’s Gold Medal for Architecture.

The school brings together three comprehensives and one primary school on one site, housing a total of 1,400 pupils aged three to 16.

Architects Stride Treglown, which has offices in Cardiff, won the accolade ahead of AHR’s three-storey Rhyl High School in Denbighshire; the £44 million Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) by IBI Group; and the five-bed Silver House on the Gower Peninsula by Wales and Netherlands-based Hyde + Hyde Architects.

The Judges said: “Ysgol Bae Baglan combines a high aspiration of uniting a local community with a dynamic architecture statement. Situated on a flat site, the roof form replicates the surrounding hills and makes the building approachable and welcoming.

“The classrooms are spacious with abundant natural light, while the long school corridor has a curved and playful shape. It is hoped that the school will become a focal point for the long term development of the area helping to bring the community together.”

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