The Grassington National Park Centre, Yorkshire Dales National Park

The Client:
The Yorkshire Dales National Park is an 841 mile2 (2,178 km2) National Park that spans the counties of North Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire and attracts over 8 million visitors per year. The gateway to many of these visitors in the market town of Grassington.

The Brief:
Daedalian Glass Studios was commissioned to create architectural public artwork that would form part of the interchange building at the Grassington National Park Centre. The brief was to research the local area to select relevant imagery, then create a glass dome, toughened semi-circular glass walls, and a sandblasted design on the entrance screen.

What we did

Four months of consultation with local residents was first undertaken to truly understand the local history, the myths and tales of the area, and the landmarks they held dear. This allowed Davia Walmsley of Daedalian Glass Studios to tell the story of the local residents and create a written and pictorial account of the local area within her design.

The glass walls were sandblasted on both sides to achieve a 3D effect and bonded to this were glass castings of fossils unearthed in the local area. The glass surfaces were then treated with a non-stick surface coating to repel dirt and finger marks.

The fused glass dome was created in six pieces, drawing inspiration from the native flora of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

This project won a RIBA Regional Award, Small Building Category.