Buttress Architects | Caernarfon Castle

We have been appointed to redevelop King’s Gate at Caernarfon Castle into new visitor and staff facilities.

Caernarfon Castle and its associated walled town have played a significant part in the history of Wales and the rest of the UK for much of the last millennium.
The castle is one of the most iconic monuments in the UK and became Wales’s first World Heritage Site in 1986, along with the castles at Harlech, Beaumaris and Conwy.

Our designs will add a new layer of architecture to the Medieval building through the creation of a lightweight structure that will sit on top of and within the twin-towered King’s Gate.
On the upper-level this structure will span Kings Gate and will provide a sheltered seating area offering views across the castle complex as well as café facilities, echoing the building’s original function as a great hall. Exhibition spaces and a new reception area will also be built within the existing tower.

The new accommodation has been designed to form the negative of the Kings Gate and vertical access has been a key driver for spatial planning and is created in the unoccupied Western Tower. The new interventions are designed to be visually and physically separate from the Castle walls; and are planned to touch the building lightly at access points.

Creative design solutions have been carefully and thoughtfully developed alongside key stakeholders, with the result being a bold and innovative approach; challenging convention whilst revealing and enhancing the outstanding universal value of this remarkable place.