An opening
event will mark the culmination of a £9.7m project that has completely
modernised the facilities with the addition of brand-new studios, offices,
workshops and a state-of-the-art Exhibition Hall.
The
building, originally designed by Sir Percy Thomas, has been home to the Welsh
School of Architecture (WSA) for more than 100 years, and will now bring the
entirety of the WSA’s activities back under one roof.
The project
has formed part of Cardiff University’s biggest campus upgrade in a generation,
which has seen more than £600m invested in research and teaching facilities.
The
refurbishment has been designed alongside a new offering of postgraduate taught
and undergraduate programmes, and to provide an enhanced studio culture within
the WSA.
It has
included extensive renovation of the building’s interiors, such as the creation
of larger, lighter and more flexible studio spaces, and the repair and upgrade
to the roof.
The WSA’s
workshop facilities have also been relocated and significantly expanded with an
enlarged wood and metal workshop, digital fabrication facilities to produce
models using the latest laser cutting, 3D printing and CNC (Computer Numeric
Control) technologies, and an enhanced space for the WSA’s robotic arm.
At the front
entrance of the building, an exhibition space and Living Lab have been created
to help strengthen links between the staff and students at the WSA,
architectural practices and local communities.
The project
has also helped to uncover and reinstate the original Assembly Hall, a
two-storey space at the heart of the building, which was previously concealed
following its conversion to a lecture theatre in the 1990s.
A key
feature of the Bute Building’s heritage and Grade II listed status, this new
Exhibition Hall, which opened last month, will be the centrepiece of the
building.
Dr Juliet
Davis, Head of the Welsh School of Architecture said: "I am absolutely
delighted to be able to showcase the building to the public and to officially
mark the start of a new era for the Welsh School of Architecture.
“The Bute
Building has been our home since our inception in 1920, and so this is the
perfect way for us to celebrate more than 100 years of existence.
“As the
adaptation of an historic building, this refurbishment embodies the School’s
long-held ethos of sustainability. We hope it will foster creativity and
collaboration, incubating new ways of thinking, researching, learning, writing
and making Architecture for decades to come."
The team
behind global design practice BDP’s Cardiff studio were the project architects
on this major refurbishment project.
Nick Durham,
architect director at BDP in Cardiff, himself a graduate and former tutor on
the Masters degree course at the Welsh School of Architecture, said: “It has
been a privilege to play a part in shaping the future of this historic building
where generations of architects have been and will continue to be supported and
inspired for many more decades to come. Key to our approach was the intelligent
and sensitive repurposing of the building, based on a thorough understanding of
the original Sir Percy Thomas design. This has helped ensure that our new
interventions work with the building fabric to deliver flexible and sustainable
learning environments based on the future needs of the School.”
