award winning architects

Tuesday, 25 January 2011 00:00

cardifflibrarythumb

2010 Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RIBA) Award – Cardiff Library

Cardiff Central Library is one of seven buildings from Wales to be awarded with the internationally recognized Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RIBA) award in 2010.

Stride Treglown were executive architects, taking BDP’s initial design from Planning to completion with the contractor, Laing O’Rourke.  We were praised for increasing the BREEAM score by 10 points during the detailed design and construction phases.

The new Cardiff Central Library was developed as part of the new St David’s retail centre, a partnership between private developer and the City, and occupies a pivotal site at the south end of The Hayes.

The architects responded to the prominent site, immediately opposite to the anchor department store for the new development, with a bold and colourful building at the convergence of two pedestrianised streets, whose retail and cafe activities spill into the public realm, and a significant proportion of the new library ground floor is given over to restaurant use. There is a constant buzz of activity to two sides at ground level, with the library foyer occupying another side of the roughly triangular footprint, and the elevations above are articulated with glazed facades formed in storey bands of vertical ‘hit and miss’ stripes and shading fins. The third, quieter side receives a more sombre patinated copper cladding which is visually recessive and in keeping with the anonymous elevations of neighbouring brick buildings.

Cardiff Library