Welsh School of Architecture
- Location
- Cathays Park, Cardiff
- Client
- Cardiff University
- Expertise
- Architecture
- Acoustics
- Completion
- March 2022
- Size
- 7600 sq m
- Cost
- £9.7m
The major refurbishment of Cardiff University's Grade II Listed Bute Building to create a new and iconic home for the Welsh School of Architecture.
The major renovation and expansion of the Welsh School of Architecture within the Grade II Listed Bute Building to create a new home for the Centre for Well Informed Design, Research and Education in the Built Environment (WIDER-BE).
The project is an exemplar of passive, sustainable refurbishment and provides an aspirational new identity for the WSA. Our design introduces flexible dynamic studio working, bringing together tutorial, critique and exhibition space with access to workshops and social areas.
The key to our approach was developing a thorough understanding of how the original building was designed by Sir Percy Thomas and then introducing targeted, light-touch interventions to optimise the flexible use of spaces, whilst taking advantage of natural ventilation and daylight rather than adding more layers of technology that make the building complicated to operate and maintain.
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.