Built between 1982-84, the Gwynedd County Council headquarters in Caernarfon was designed by Merfyn H. Roberts (1925–2015) and Terry Potter of Gwynedd County Council Architects’ Department in association with Wyn Thomas & Partners and with Dewi Prys-Thomas' (1916-1985) as consultant (his last design).
In 1980 Dewi Prys-Thomas was given the opportunity to design the Pencadlys alongside Caernarfon Castle. Prys-Thomas intended to create a building which 'from an historical aspect... might have been there for the previous two or three centuries...' and one which would 'sing a duet with the Castle'. The building is located among a series of listed buildings in the centre of Caernarfon. It contained 'a series of shallow plan floor plates which maintained the character of the town's existing medieval street and square pattern with linked pedestrian and service courtyards.'
Monica Cherry considers the building an important piece of urban design which addressed not only the required office space but also its effect on the surrounding locale, including keeping in theme with neighbouring buildings and the nearby 13th century Caernarfon castle. Hodder and Holder argue that ‘its contextualism and employment of the ‘culture of quotations’ of post-Modernism single it out as an important example of this major shift in architectural thinking for the construction of such major building projects.’
Writing in Touchstone, the curiosity of the date of construction (1983) was not lost on Dafydd Iwan who noted 383 and 1283 as other significant dates in Welsh history, giving the building a 'cosmic' profile. Maclolm Parry has stated: 'The strong, slightly squat simple columns are associational of medievalism and Transylvania rather than Wales. Did Dewi [Prys-Thomas] intend us to relate to Salzzburg and Hallein in Austria where the Celts originated? The heaviness of this street scene contrasts with the lightness of the inner courtyard with its coupled metal columns, where the impression is of the twentieth century and a Scandinavian airiness.'
M.Powel, RCAHMW, March 2022.
Sources: Monica Cherry, Building Wales Adeiladu Cymru, p.42-43; Dafydd Iwan, Malcolm Parry and Richard Weston, 'Masterwork or missed opportunity', Touchstone, May 1997, pp.9-17; Vining and Parry, Wales 1901-2000, p.28; Hodder and Holder, Advice to Inform Post-war Listing, pp.59-60