Nyth, Bangor, Gwynedd

Building of the Year sponsored by EH Smith
Sustainability Award sponsored by Autodesk
Regional Client of the Year sponsored by Equitone

Manalo & White for Frân Wen
Contract value: £3,014m
GIA: 714m²
Cost per m²: £4,221

Nyth (Welsh for ‘Nest’) is a new, fully inclusive and highly sustainable community arts venue within a former church in Bangor, North Wales. Located in the town centre, the churchyard is tightly enclosed by the surrounding terraced houses and commercial buildings, ensuring this community building is fully integrated in the fabric of the town. The site slopes gently down towards the main road.

The ground floor of the original church above the general site level and accessed via a small flight of steps to either side aisle. Architect Manalo & White has positioned the new front entrance in the public-facing western elevation; here, a large new opening beneath the west window reveals an enlarged basement/crypt space, carving the building open to offer a highly visible gateway for the community through glazed sliding doors from the street. 

Internally, the spatial arrangement is informal, with notions of ceremony and process dispensed with, as a counterpoint to the strict formality of the church. The principal spaces – entrance, main performance space and upper mezzanine – are arranged asymmetrically and off axis to the building’s original symmetry. 

All other spaces are inserted around these: workshop, meeting rooms, blacked-out rehearsal studios, seating areas, staircases, art installations, shared kitchen and toilets. Leftover ‘gaps’ between offer privacy and a chance to sit away to one side. 

The original stone walls, columns and timber roof were retained, with most of the new steel and concrete structure laced through and around the retained fabric. The existing church structure and layout remains entirely legible, allowing the new works to be demountable if wished. 

Discoveries are repurposed; organ pipes become wall linings. Christian iconography has been respectfully obscured rather than removed, helping to break down perceptions and invite a broader demographic into this building typology.

The presence of the original nave columns in the performance space means having to negotiate them but users embrace this as working with the constraints of the building and as an ongoing adaptive reuse of the space. 

The architect’s attitude to inclusivity continues in the choice of materials internally. Profiled acoustic wall panels dampen noise in potentially lively spaces and colours and tones are muted and layered, creating visual softness too. Other new and found materials include galvanised steel, timber and glass, with blackout curtains covering or revealing crypt walls. 

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RIBA UK Awards 2025 sponsored by Autodesk, EH Smith, Equitone and VELUX