Luke Walsh

Famous for their later works, which include the Tate St Ives (1993), Bettws High School in Newport, South Wales was the first major commission for renowned architects and designers Eldred Evans and David Shalevand was the winning entry in a national competition run by the Newport Education Authority in 1967. The brief stipulated the school should consist of several internal ‘houses’ with individual teaching spaces, cloakrooms, toilet facilities and common areas. Special consideration was also given to subjects appropriate to the South Wales catchment area such as metal work and domestic science with the school accommodating up to 1760 children.

However since the school’s inception in 1971, Bettws has been a stain on the community and fallen into a state of increasing disrepair. With the city council eager to fulfil their promise and deliver inspiration 21st century alternatives to failing schools, Bettws is the first in a series of rebuilds planned to happen throughout the city.

One of the biggest contributors to the eventual demolition of Bettws is the inadequacy of the building materials. The structure is plagued by ‘concrete cancer’, a process where excessive alkaline in the concrete reacts with atmospheric carbon dioxide causing cracks to appear in the surface. In milder wetter climates this permits water to enter the cavities and compromise the longevity of the building through constant freezing and thawing. This natural process of change and transition from one form to another became the main concept behind much of my work. 

Instead of focusing on the brutal aesthetic of Bettws the work explored the idea of nature and change whilst water became a prevalent theme for much of the work. The appropriateness water has to the decline of Bettws as well as it’s symbolism in religious ceremonies for change and transition made it an apposite vehicle for the work. 

Whilst the images deal with small internal metaphors about the school’s degeneration their subjective nature also translates to larger universal truths concerning transformation, life and death.