Buildings are but one part of the continuum of spaces that structure our relationship with the environment. Lawrenny from the air reveals a visual order that encompasses the village dwellings, the interstitial spaces between them and extends out into the surrounding landscape of fields, hedgerows and woods to the river estuary and the sea. On the horizon the distant profile of the Cleddau Bridge provides a useful orientation to the wider context. The built fabric of traditional settlements, like Lawrenny, is the result of a long evolution. The buildings we find today are the most permanent traces of a process of human inhabitation of the landscape. A constantly changing balance influenced by changes in farming practice, social needs and technology. The latest layer of influence, the contemporary issue of sustainability, is simply an extension of this process to larger context; reflecting our growing understanding of the boundaries of our world.
