Following on from our news article about the funding appeal for a
new Snowdon Summit building, we thought you might be interested in
some more details of the new building and the internals in
particular.
Of course no building on a mountain top is going to feel like
uncharted wilderness, but then with a full scale railway running to
the summit, the top of Yr Wyddfa is never going to resemble most UK
mountains. The argument runs that it's far better to have a
sympathetically designed building on the top of the highest mountain
in England and Wales than the present unprepossessing heap of
concrete below. And, of course, it'll give the tourists something to
do once they're up there...
There were actually been visitor facilities on the summit some 170
years ago - a hut offering refreshments no less - the train appeared
by the end of the nineteenth century and in 1935 a station hotel and
cafe was built and it's still there.
Plans for a new building were approved in January 2004 and it's
been designed, by architects Furneaux Stewart to be an eco-friendly
construction, more in sympathy with its location than before though
occupying the same footprint. Leased and operated by the Snowdon
Mountain Railway, it will offer refreshments, toilets, weather
information (it's cloudy and cold again), a wind shelter and
information and orientation.
If you're wondering what the outside may look like, there's an
artists interpretation above, but we're talking a less obtrusive,
shorter building faced with local stone similar to the summit rocks
and with two non-reflective glass walls, one facing towards the
summit and one looking out towards Moel Hebog. There won't be an
external serving hatch, to reduce potential litter problems on the
mountain. There are a lot more details at the Snowdon
Summit web site but there's an emphasis on eco-friendliness and
the use of local materials so that the buildings blend in more
cleanly.
Pretty On The Inside
Of course the outside is important and, let's be honest, the only
bit us hard-nosed mountaineering folk are ever going to see, because
of course, we would never be tempted by a nice, hot cup of tea and
some cake on a gnarly summer's day, but the inside matters too.
We've seen the so-called Interpretation Plan which outlines the,
erm, interpretation for the Snowdon Summit Building. It's all about
helping people to understand Snowdon and its surroundings in a
sympathetic way and placing it in its context as a Welsh icon. That
means educating the 35,000 odd annual visitors to the summit about
the local geology, culture, flora and fauna as well as the work of
the Snowdonia Park Authority. Interpretation, if you were wondering,
is 'a way of imparting messages to visitors in a memorable way'. So
there you go.
All the educational stuff will be housed within the building and
aim to place Snowdon in context, including stuff that despite
experienced walkers' familiarity with the mountain, they may be
unaware of. Snowdon, for example, contains remants of ancient
sealife.
What's encouraging, reading the document, is that the architects
seem very sensitive to the context of the building, stressing
repeatedly that it's not intended to compete with the mountain as an
attraction, but to emphasise its significance. That theme carries on
inside with plans to use the fabric of the building, including ideas
like inserting graphical representations of local fossils and
flowers, like the Snowdon lily, in walls and floors.
There are also plans to insert LCD screens into a glass interior
wall and show films relating to the local landscape and the
contruction of the building itself. There will be a Ranger's Alcove,
complete with a Park Ranger to anser questions and give advice and a
walkers' lobby and bag store where you can leave your pack while
you're not going in to buy a cuppa...
Anyway, above are a few planning drawings to give you some idea of
what's planned. We actually quite like them, but see what you think.
You can get some idea of how the architechs plan to use the walls,
ceilings and floors to add relevant detail and the general curviness
of the structure. And those things above are pull out display trays
in the walls. We reckon they might need to draw a few more chairs and
tables though :-)
For more details of the new Snowdon Summit building project and
for details of how to make a donation to the project, check out the
Snowdon
Summit web site .
The Other Maria
