Client: Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council

Location: Merthyr Tydfil

Service: Urban Design, Masterplanning, Regeneration

The Urbanists were commissioned by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council to review the ‘Big Heart of Merthyr’ regeneration strategy for the town centre.

Part of this approach was to consider and recommend potential projects and initiatives. A critique of the ‘Big heart of Merthyr’ revealed that whilst much had already delivered, that there was no unifying masterplan for the town. We set about creating a regeneration masterplan for the town based upon proven urban design principles. 

Part of our approach was to develop the notion of the masterplan as an intervention script, for which a spatial representation was essential. Therefore a significant part of our approach was about identifying potential short, medium and long term opportunities and presenting them via a masterplan for the town centre.

As a consequence of this masterplan over £23m of investment has been secured which has resulted in:

• two new public plazas

• a new multi storey car park

• extensions to the college

• the Local Authority being able to make several key property acquisitions

• the creation of new highways infrastructure