The Cyfarthfa Foundation and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council are seeking to develop a new Signage, Wayfinding and Branding Strategy for Cyfarthfa Park.
Cyfarthfa Park is a 200-year-old Historic Park and Garden of Special Historic Interest, and is registered as such by Cadw and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). The Park contains the grounds of the historically important Cyfarthfa Castle.
Cyfarthfa Castle is a Grade I listed building. It was built in two parts: the original castle in 1825 and, almost a century later, school buildings were built for Cyfarthfa High School following the transfer of ownership from the Crawshay family to the Council. The ground floor of the 1825 section of the castle houses the current museum and gallery conveying the industrial history of Merthyr and displaying an art collection of more than 300 works by a wide range of artists. The Cyfarthfa High School left the building ten years ago and this part has lain empty ever since.
In October 2017, more than 60 experts and community organisations came together to brainstorm ideas for the Cyfarthfa Castle site. The event was organised by the Design Commission for Wales, with the assistance of the Welsh School of Architecture, and the outcome was the ‘Crucible’ report that envisaged the creation at Cyfarthfa of a national centre for industrial heritage. The report was accepted unanimously by Merthyr Tydfil Council who agreed to commission a masterplan for the area. This masterplan, created by Ian Ritchie Architects, identified over 70 potential projects, with work split into four phases across two decades. At the heart of the Ian Ritchie masterplan was to create at Cyfarthfa a people-centred museum, set in an exceptional 100-hectare park, to benefit the local community.
The Cyfarthfa Foundation was established, to turn the vision for Cyfarthfa into a deliverable plan. The Foundation is a charitable foundation, and was formed in November 2020. The Foundation is working alongside Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council (MTCBC), who currently own the castle.
In 2021 the Welsh Government agreed to fund the development phase, and so work began on better understanding the site, and new surveys and appraisals were commissioned.
Cyfarthfa Park is an important park both locally and regionally. While the park offers an important historical context to the Castle it also offers more conventional facilities often associated with public parks.
The Cyfarthfa Foundation and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council are seeking to develop a new Signage, Wayfinding and Branding Strategy for Cyfarthfa Park.
We are now seeking to appoint consultants to design a full orientation solution to improve the signage and orientation in the Park. This will develop work already conducted and investigate the potential of upgrading existing signage.
The development of the strategy should pay particular attention to:
- Reinforcing the identity of Cyfarthfa Park & Castle as a unified entity celebrating its heritage.
- Investigate potential of how existing directional signage can be modified / upgraded to improve navigation.
- To designate, illustrate and promote the principal park zones, facilities, heritage, and attractions in a simple legible manner.
- The design should be inclusive, providing ideas about how to support people with additional access needs and should be fully DDA compliant.
- There should be a conscious attempt to ‘design out’ problems relating to vandalism, graffiti and fly posting, and to address these antisocial behaviour issues innovatively and in a visually sensitive manner.
- The Council’s bi-lingual policy and how this will be included into the design.
Completed tenders should be returned by email info@cyfarthfafoundation.wales by midday on 28 January 2025.
Full details and how to apply can be found here