Postmodernist Portmeirion

Architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis’ Italian Village, Wales.

Iolo

Published in

Inside VBAT

6 min readOct 10, 2019

Written by Iolo
Junior Designer at VBAT

We are in Wales. Overlooking the Afon Dwyryd, close to the point where the river flows into Bae Ceredigion and we are in the Italian village of Portmeirion.

With an estimated 400,000 people of Italian origin living in Wales, Wales has the largest Italian community in Britain. Walk down almost any street in South Wales and you’re likely to see a Bracchi, or Italian cafe, named after one of the first Italian cafe owners in the Rhondda valley. Due to a wave of immigration during the early 19th century, at one time, almost every small town in South Wales would feature an Italian ice cream shop and cafe.

‘The most important experience in my life’ was how Luciano Pavarotti described singing in Wales. In 1955 he had his first stage success as part of the Corale Rossini male voice choir at the International Llangollen Eisteddfod. This win helped convince the King of the High-Cs that he had a potential career in music.

“(…)in the Italian village of Portmeirion, the interwoven UK — European relationship is writ in stone and stucco”

Wales and Italy have a relationship stretching back since the Roman occupation. The ancient and contemporary influences on the language, geography, cuisine and modern high-street is sizeable. Nowhere however, is this blend of Italian and Welsh more distinct than Portmeirion. At a time when the UK is struggling to redefine where it sits on the world stage, in the Italian village of Portmeirion, the interwoven UK — European relationship is writ in stone and stucco. A village-sized monument to cultural exchange.

“each building was designed slightly smaller than normal to provide the town with a feeling of intimacy”

Set in 70 acres of sub-tropical forest, the Italian Riviera-style village of Portmeirion was designed and built by acclaimed architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925–1975. Alongside his architectural practise, Sir Clough also worked tirelessly to protect British wilderness and was pivotal in the establishment of National Parks in England and Wales. He was a founding member of both the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW). Claiming direct descendancy from Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, Sir Clough built Portmeirion on land he inherited from his father. Within the grounds, known as Y Gwyllt (‘Wildwood’), are the remains of Castell Deudraeth (‘Two Sands’ Castle), now a folly but previously one of the first stone castles built in Gwynedd. Itself built on the site of the older, Castell Aber Iâ (‘Ice Estuary’ Castle), as mentioned by Gerald of Wales in 1188.

In addition to the buildings and spaces designed by Sir Clough William-Ellis, the village incorporates elements of demolished buildings from across the UK. The Bath bathhouse, for example, was moved brick-by-brick to the site. An effervescent melting pot of colours, complexity and creativity, each building was designed slightly smaller than normal to provide the town with a feeling of intimacy. Of architecture, Sir Clough said:

“I think that Beauty, The Strange Necessity — as Rebecca West once called it — is something that matters profoundly to humanity, and that unless the race of man perishes from the earth, it will increasingly value that Grace, will seek it, and will ultimately attain it.”

The romantic, tongue-in-cheek Baroque architecture lead to Portmeirion being featured in a number of films and TV shows. Most famously the cult classic 1960s show The Prisoner, whose fans still flock to Portmeirion. Today Portmeirion plays host to festivals, weddings, a TV documentary and is open to the public (but not dogs) who are served by the hotels, cafes, spa and shops housed in the unique buildings.

The architecture critic Lewis Mumford described Portmeirion as:

“an artful and playful little modern village, designed as a whole and all of a piece … a fantastic collection of architectural relics and impish modern fantasies. … As an architect, [Williams-Ellis] is equally at home in the ancient, traditional world of the stark Welsh countryside and the once brave new world of “modern architecture.” But he realized earlier than most of his architectural contemporaries how constricted and desiccated modern forms can become when the architect pays more attention to the mechanical formula or the exploitation of some newly fabricated material than to the visible human results. In a sense, Portmeiron is a gay, deliberately irresponsible reaction against the dull sterilities of so much that passes as modern architecture today. … [I]t is prompted by [the] impulse … to reclaim for architecture the freedom of invention — and the possibility of pleasurable fantasy — it had too abjectly surrendered to the cult of the machine.”
- Lewis Mumford, ‘The Highway and the City’, 1964

A reaction against the functional ‘less is more’ doctrines of modern architecture, deemed by many to be dull and restrictive. The deliberate ‘fanciful nostalgia’ has been noted as a considerable influence on the development of 20th century postmodernist architecture. Portmeirion was visited by American-Welsh architect Frank Lloyd Wright during a visit of his ancestral country.

With absolutely no local Welsh architectural precedent and not zealous in its conformity to Italian style; the grounds also feature an Oriental garden with Chinese bridge and pagoda. Portmeirion embraces the kitsch, an architectural simulacra perhaps. It is references abound with a grounding only in its wish to not be restricted in its artistic expression. Its flamboyant but honest inauthenticity is both comforting and charming. Portmeirion makes no pretences: it is a serious piece of architecture that does not take itself too seriously.

The rejection of modernist principals of utopia and machine aesthetic are pertinent today too in a time of digital isolation and increasing climate anxiety. Just as then, we are re-recognising that towers of glass and concrete do not fulfil our need for intimacy and colour; for nature and a sense of community. Sir Clough Williams-Ellis was ahead of his time in envisioning a new way of building. With the needs and fancies of people at its heart. The village’s location in the beautiful Welsh hillsides, close to water and to forests and on a site steeped in history are just as important as the architecture.

I expect in the coming years, the kaleidoscopic camp aesthetic, the overt individuality and the confidence of Portmeirion to do things differently will raise its ‘Millennial pink’ head into the collective consciousness. The Italian-Welsh postmodernist village of Portmeirion is more relevant than ever.