The new broadcast centre and HQ for BBC Cymru Wales lies at the heart
of the Capital Square redevelopment in the centre of Cardiff and is an
exemplar, BREEAM outstanding building, setting new standards for
innovative, flexible and cost-effective workplaces.
Designed by Foster+Partners, the
new headquarters brings together a
wide variety of studio, administration
and support spaces in a single building,
which is open to the city, highly flexible,
energy efficient and provides a creative,
collaborative and inspiring workplace for
BBC staff.
Located opposite Cardiff Central Station,
the project is situated on the site of the
former bus station to create a dynamic
media quarter around Capital Square, which
is planned as a major new public space for
the city.
“The building is designed to be open and
welcoming – visitors can access the
ground floor and look up through a full height atrium into the working spaces
above, as well as into a new café facing the
square,” explained a spokesperson for the
architectural team, which was led by Toby
Blunt and Adam Newburn.
“The design also establishes a sense
of openness and transparency between
different departments to create
new opportunities for collaboration and interaction. The heart of the
headquarters is a 4,000-square-metre
‘hub’, which extends across three linked
levels and incorporates studios, offices
and production facilities. The scheme
includes a sheltered garden on the roof
of the hub, which is connected to a
restaurant and provides a unique venue
for filming, as well as a valuable social
amenity for staff.
"The project targets BREEAM ‘outstanding’
environmental accreditation with strategies
such as chilled beams, locally sourced
and recycled materials and an efficient envelope. Mechanical systems have been
carefully integrated to create a highly
flexible interior, which can anticipate and
respond to changing technologies.”
Foster+Partners was appointed to the
project in 2010 by the Rightacres Property
Company and the 30-metre high, 25,600m²
building was completed in 2019. Last year it
won both the Innovation in Design category
in the RICS Awards and was winner of
the Building Project of the Year title in the
Constructing Excellence Awards, Wales.
Two types of curtain walling, and
entrance doors, by Kawneer, including the
first use in the UK of a new severe duty
welded door, feature on the award-winning
building.
Kawneer’s AA®100 capped and zone drained aluminium curtain wall,
complemented by its SSG (Structurally
Silicone Glazed) and mullion-drained
sister product, have been used throughout
the glittering façade of the striking new
headquarters building for BBC Cymru at
Three Central Square.
They in turn are complemented by
thermally-superior AA®720 doors and the
new dual colour AA®190 TB severe duty
welded doors with class-leading thermal
performance that is so robust they are
offered with a lifetime guarantee.
The high-performance ceiling system for
BBC Wales’ new facility was designed
by Senior Architectural Systems in
partnership with Sheppard Robson.
Over 5000m2
of SAS International’s
acoustic metal hybrid raft ceiling systems
provide a distinctive aesthetic suited to a 21st century digital broadcast
environment.
Hybrid metal acoustic rafts, made up
of varying sized panels supported on a
concealed grid with bespoke upstands,
are suspended between the rows of
chilled beams that supply cooling to the office floors. Light fittings in a distinctive
cruciform arrangement are suspended
beneath the ceiling.
The TV studios, with exceptional
acoustic requirements, are lined with SAS
International’s WP10 metal acoustic wall
panel system.
