Architecture in Cardiff, the capital city of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, dates from Norman times to the present day. Its urban fabric is largely Victorian and later, reflecting

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

's rise to prosperity as a major coal port in the 19th century. No single building style is associated with Cardiff, but the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

retains several 19th and early 20th century shopping arcades. The city is noted for its fantasy castles,

Cardiff Castle Cardiff Castle ( cy, Castell Caerdydd) is a medieval castle and Victorian Gothic revival mansion located in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. The original motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on top ...

and Castell Coch, both by the Victorian architect

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...

. The well-preserved early 20th century Civic Centre, surrounding

Cathays Park Cathays Park ( cy, Parc Cathays) or Cardiff Civic Centre is a civic centre area in the city centre of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, consisting of a number of early 20th century buildings and a central park area, Alexandra Gardens. It i ...

, was described as one of the best examples of civic planning in Britain.Tinniswood, A.
A History of British Architecture
' BBC History, updated 29 March 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2011. The city contains a number of notable modern buildings and engineering projects. These include the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national r ...

(1999) in the city centre and several examples in the major

urban regeneration Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of bligh ...

project of

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of ...

, for example the

Wales Millennium Centre Wales Millennium Centre ( cy, Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru) is an arts centre located in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The site covers a total area of . Phase 1 of the building was opened during the weekend of the 26–28 November 2004 an ...

and the

Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gov ...

. The western suburb of

St Fagans St Fagans ( ; cy, Sain Ffagan) is a village and community in the west of the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It is home to the St Fagans National History Museum. History The name of the area invokes Saint Fagan, according to William of M ...

contains an open-air museum of Welsh vernacular architecture, the St Fagans National History Museum.

Building materials

The common building materials of Cardiff's Victorian and Edwardian buildings are

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

, blue

Pennant stone The Pennant Measures is the traditional name for a sequence of sedimentary rocks of the South Wales Coalfield. They were also referred to as the Upper Coal Measures and assigned to the Westphalian 'C' and Westphalian 'D' stages of the Carbonifero ...

and red brick – except in Cathays Park, where

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building ...

predominates. Grey Lias stone features heavily in the construction of the city's medieval buildings (the keep of Cardiff Castle,

Llandaff Cathedral Llandaff Cathedral ( cy, Eglwys Gadeiriol Llandaf) is an Anglican cathedral and parish church in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales. It is the seat of the Bishop of Llandaff, head of the Church in Wales Diocese of Llandaff. It is dedicated to Saint Peter ...

and St John the Baptist's church), but is absent from later buildings. Two recent buildings in Cardiff Bay, the Senedd and the

, make conspicuous use of

Welsh slate The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the Roman period, when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then expanded rapidly until the la ...

together with glass and steel.

Early and medieval buildings

Perhaps the most noted individual building in the city is

, a fortress of Roman foundation with a ruined 12th-century medieval keep and exterior walls.Museum of Wales 'Rhagor' webpages
Medieval Cardiff
, 4 May 2007. Retrieved 24 October 2011. After Cardiff Castle, the oldest remaining building in the city centre is St John's Parish Church, which dates from the 12th century but was almost totally reconstructed during the 15th century. It has a fine

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It c ...

style nave and tower.The City Parish of St John the Baptist, Cardif
Parish History
(retrieved 25 October 2011) The medieval town walls were removed as the town developed and nowadays only two very small sections remain. The modernised

Womanby Street Womanby Street is one of the oldest streets in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. Tracing its name back to origins within the Norse language, its original purpose was to link Cardiff Castle to its quay. In this way it became a trade hub and sett ...

is one of the few remaining original medieval streets, that lead from the town's original quay to the castle. Two monastic buildings existed in Cardiff, Greyfriars (demolished for Capital Tower) and Blackfriars, established in the late 13th century. Greyfriars was converted into a family mansion but was demolished to make way for a carpark and office block during the 20th century. The foundations of Blackfriars can still be seen in

Bute Park Bute Park and Arboretum () is a park in Cardiff, Wales. It comprises of landscaped gardens and parkland that once formed the grounds of Cardiff Castle. The park is named after the 3rd Marquess of Bute, whose family owned the castle. History an ...

dates from 1107 but was built on the site of a pre-Norman building. It was significantly extended in the 13th and 15th centuries.Llandaff Cathedral websit
A SHORT HISTORY
updated 23 December 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2011. Nearby are the ruins of the Bishop's Palace, destroyed by the forces of

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

in 1400.

19th-century architecture

With the arrival of the railways and a rapidly expanding coal export industry, Cardiff changed beyond recognition during the mid nineteenth century. It became the largest town in Wales in 1875.Stewart Williams (Ed.), "South Glamorgan – A County History", Stewart Williams Publishing (1975), pp. 84–85. From the 1840s new residential streets were built in

Butetown Butetown (or ''The Docks'', cy, Tre-biwt) is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose t ...

and Temperance Town (completed 1864).Stewart Williams (Ed.), "South Glamorgan – A County History", Stewart Williams Publishing (1975), pp. 79–82. Much of the land on which Cardiff was built was owned by John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute. Much of Cardiff and many of its buildings were designed by the marquess's architect, Alexander Roos. New churches and chapels were created, including a new Romanesque St Mary's Church on Bute Street. Noted local architect

John Prichard John Prichard (6 May 1817 – 13 October 1886) was a Welsh architect in the neo-Gothic style. As diocesan architect of Llandaff, he was involved in the building or restoration of many churches in south Wales. Personal history John Prichard wa ...

designed St Margaret's Church, Roath and St John's Church, Canton, also refurbishing

. The (surviving) Tabernacl chapel in The Hayes is described as the "finest classical chapel of the period". Important architects from outside Wales arrived, designing St David's Roman Catholic church (1887) in Charles Street, amongst others. In 1853 a new "graceless but vigorous"

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

d Town Hall and Corn Exchange (Cardiff's fourth town hall) replaced the old Guildhall in High Street. Horace Jones of London had been the winners of the design competition, controversially, because the cost limit was £8,000, while Jones scheme was estimated at £11,690. The building was extended in 1876 but was eventually replaced in the early 20th century."Plans & Prospects: Architecture in Wales 1780–1914", Welsh Arts Council (1975), p. 49. Cardiff Royal Infirmary 01

New shops, bank buildings and hotels appeared, including the Royal Hotel (1866), Great Western Hotel (1876) and Park Hotel (1885). Cardiff's "fascinating and delightful" Victorian shopping arcades were built: High Street Arcade (1885), Wyndham Arcade (1886), Castle Arcade (1887) and Morgan Arcade (1896).Stewart Williams (Ed.), "South Glamorgan – A County History", Stewart Williams Publishing (1975), pp. 86–89. Important new public buildings were created, including the Central Library, Cardiff Royal Infirmary, St David's Hospital, the Theatre Royal (later renamed the Prince of Wales Theatre), Grand Theatre (Westgate Street) and the University College of South Wales. Impressive new buildings were constructed in Butetown to serve the dockland economy. These included the Coal Exchange (1883–86) in Mount Stuart Square and the imposing French-Gothic Pierhead Building (1896) at the docks entrance.

William Burgess

' contribution to Welsh architecture was notable but limited to three buildings,

, Castell Coch and Park House The influence of Park House was significant to the architecture of Wales; John Newman considers the house "revolutionized Cardiff's domestic architecture"" and the

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

Grade I listed building status given to the house records it as "the pattern for much housing in Cardiff in later C19. Perhaps the most important (nineteenth century) town house in Wales." While Burges' style was highly creative it is often difficult to pin down the stylistic sources of his designs. Mordaunt Crook remarks that Burges drew on his extensive travels and the studies he had made of the campanilii of San Gimaggnano, Florence and Siena. He included recollections of Nuremberg and Palermo, of the Chateau de Chillonon on Lake Geneva, the Castello at Milan and the Palais des Papes at

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label= Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the commune had ...

. Nearer home he took elements from Conway, Caernarvon and

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

Castles.

Cardiff Castle

was restored and redesigned between 1868 and 1890. The Marquis of Bute had a momentous partnership with Burges that was to last for sixteen years, with Cardiff Castle transformed into a Neo- Gothic dream palace. Bute's workmen pulled down the houses built against the South Curtain Wall. Burges restored the stonework, and he added a covered parapet walk with embrasures and arrow slits. The Clock Tower was built on the site of a Roman bastion and completed in 1875. The scheme included the Medieval buildings of the West wing which had been "gothicised" by Henry Holland in 1774. Burges designed a Nursery especially for the Bute children. The Bute Tower and Herbert Towers, as well as the new Guest and Tank Towers, were rebuilt. The 15th-century Octagon Tower was restored with the addition of a timber spire. Burges created a Library and the Banqueting Hall within the late medieval residential block. When Burges died in 1881, his work was continued by his former assistant

William Frame William Frame was an English architect. Life and works Frame was born at Melksham, Wiltshire in 1848. Training as an architect, he was articled firstly to William Smith of Trowbridge, he then became assistant to John Prichard of Llandaff. In 1 ...

Park House

Park House was built between 1871 and 1875 for James McConnochie, the dock engineer to Bute Estate. McConnochie was Mayor of Cardiff in 1880. The house has been used as a restaurant since 2012. The house draws on various French Gothic elements and is reminiscent of the Town Hall of St. Antonin, restored by Viollet le Duc in 1843, with late Romanesque and a Gothic arcade, but with added 15th-century

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...

windows. It is built with grey Caerphilly stone and

dressings; steeply-pitched slate roofs, stone chimneys. Features of the house were imitated by other late Victorian houses in Cardiff. Similar houses such as

Llanilar Llanilar is a village and community in Ceredigion, Wales, about southeast of Aberystwyth. It is the eponym of the hundred of Ilar. The population at the 2011 census was 1,085. The community includes Rhos-y-garth. Name In Welsh placenames, ma ...

at Abermad (1870–1872) in

Ceredigion Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...

were being built by John Pollard Seddon.

Castell Coch

Castell Coch, a ruined medieval castle, lying to north of Cardiff, was intended as an occasional summer residence for the Marquess of Bute. Burges's reported on the proposed reconstruction of Castell Coch in 1872 and construction started in 1875. The exterior comprises three towers, "almost equal to each other in diameter, but arrestingly dissimilar in height ."The Keep tower, the Well Tower and the Kitchen Tower incorporate a series of apartments, of which the main sequence, the Castellan's Rooms, lie within the Keep. The Hall, the Drawing Room, Lord Bute's Bedroom and Lady Bute's bedroom comprise a suite of rooms that exemplify the

High Victorian Gothic High Victorian Gothic was an eclectic architectural style and movement during the mid-late 19th century. It is seen by architectural historians as either a sub-style of the broader Gothic Revival style, or a separate style in its own right. Promo ...

style in 19th-century Britain. The octagonal chamber with its great rib-vault, modelled on one designed by Viollet-Le-Duc at Councy, is "spangled with butterflies and birds of sunny plume in gilded trellis work." Off the hall, lies the Windlass Room, in which Burges assembled the fully functioning apparatus for the drawbridge.

20th-century architecture

The civic centre at Cathays Park, whose earliest building dates from 1901, is a notable example in the United Kingdom of city planning on Beaux-Arts principles. In the 1941 Cardiff Blitz,

sustained a direct hit. It was restored by

George Pace George Gaze Pace, (31 December 1915 – 23 August 1975) was an English architect who specialised in ecclesiastical works. He was trained in London, and served in the army, before being appointed as surveyor to a number of cathedrals. Mo ...

, who added a concrete

parabolic arch A parabolic arch is an arch in the shape of a parabola.Article about parabolic arch by The Free DictionaryParabolic arch , Article about parabolic arch by The Free Dictionary accessdate: March 2, 2017 In structures, their curve represents an effi ...

in the nave to support a new sculpture by

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produce ...

, ''Majestas''. The

Festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

-style Empire Pool was built in the

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park ( cy, Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), also known as The Arms Park, is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green. The Arms Park was host to the British ...

for the 1958 Empire Games; this was demolished in 1999.

BBC Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main ...

in Llandaff (now demolished), designed in 1967 by Dale Owen of Percy Thomas & Partners, who had worked in Chicago under

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

, drew inspiration from modernist architecture in the United States such as Gropius's Harvard Graduate Center and

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloy ...

's apartments on

Lake Shore Drive Lake Shore Drive (officially Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable Lake Shore Drive, and called DuSable Lake Shore Drive, The Outer Drive, The Drive, or LSD) is a multilevel expressway that runs alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan, and adjacent to ...

, Chicago.

Cardiff Central police station Cardiff Central police station ( cy, Gorsaf heddlu Canol Caerdydd) is a 20th-century police station located in Cathays Park in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. Previously the South Wales Police South Wales Police ( cy, Heddlu De Cymru) is one ...

, built between 1966 and 1968 in the classical civic centre of Cardiff is described as "The most successful post-war building in

." Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre (

Will Alsop William Allen Alsop (12 December 1947 – 12 May 2018) was a British architect and Professor of Architecture at University for the Creative Arts's Canterbury School of Architecture. He was responsible for several distinctive and controversia ...

and John Lyall, 1990) – claimed to have "single-handedly put Cardiff on the architectural map". In 2010 it was dismantled to make way for a new road.

21st-century architecture

Cardiff began the new century in 2000 with the completion of a House of the Future at the St Fagans National History Museum. It was a joint initiative between

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

and Malcolm Parry of the Welsh School of Architecture and aimed to create a

zero carbon Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the " ...

house on a reasonable £120,000 budget, using the latest technologies. Steps - Senedd

underwent an urban regeneration scheme in the late 20th century and its Barrage was a major civil engineering project. New buildings of note in this area include: *The

Senedd building The Senedd building () in Cardiff houses the debating chamber and three committee rooms of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; , formerly the National Assembly for Wales). The Senedd building was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 1 March 2006, Saint ...

, home to Wales' national parliament Senedd Cymru (

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British architect noted for his modernist and Functionalism (architecture), functionalist designs in high-tech architecture. He was a senior partner a ...

, 2006), shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize. *The Wales Millennium Centre (opened 2004), awarded the Wales Eisteddfod Gold Medal in 2005.thefreelibrary.com
The awards pile up for Wales' delightful 'armadillo'
'. Western Mail, 30 July 2005 (retrieved 24 October 2011) – this project was preceded by the Cardiff Bay Opera House scheme which, ''if'' built, would have been the first building by

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ar, زها حديد ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognised as a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centu ...

in the United Kingdom. The building was refused a Lottery grant as one had already been granted to the

( HOK Sport, 1999). *260m 'post modern' facade to the BBC TV Production Centre (2011), by

Fashion Architecture Taste Fashion Architecture Taste or FAT is an art and architecture collaborative first established in the 1990s in London, England. Their work falls broadly under the postmodern category with pop-culture influences.Pearman, Hugh (15 January 2006"Your ta ...

Cardiff city centre Cardiff city centre ( cy, Canol Dinas Caerdydd) is the city centre and central business district of Cardiff, Wales. The area is tightly bound by the River Taff to the west, the Civic Centre to the north and railway lines and two railway st ...

is approximately 1 mile north of Cardiff Bay. Notable modern buildings in the city centre include: Cardiff Library Oct 2009

*The new

Cardiff Central Library Cardiff Central Library (now Cardiff Central Library Hub) ( cy, Llyfrgell Ganolog Caerdydd) is the main library in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It offers a public library service and is open six days a week. Four buildings have been nam ...

(opened in March 2009) is an example of

sustainable architecture Sustainable architecture is architecture that seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings through improved efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, development space and the ecosystem at large. Sustainable ...

. The building was specifically designed to be energy-efficient, and includes a

sedum ''Sedum'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, members of which are commonly known as stonecrops. The genus has been described as containing up to 600 species, subsequently reduced to 400–500. They are leaf succul ...

grass roof to improve insulation and reduce rainwater run-off, coloured glass panels and solar shading to prevent excessive heat gains, and a full

Building Management System Building automation (BAS), also known as building management system (BMS) or building energy management system (BEMS), is the automatic centralized control of a building's HVAC, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electrical, ligh ...

to provide climate control to individual floors. As a result of these measures the building was awarded a

BREEAM BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), first published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in 1990, is the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of ...

rating of 'excellent'. *Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, North Road, completed a £22.5 million redevelopment in 2011. The impressive exterior blends with the nearby Civic Centre and parklands using

cladding and vertical cedar louvres. The interior contains an art gallery and a new recital hall.Walesonline.co.uk
Inside the new Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
' 10 June 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2011. The Cardiff International Sports Village and St David's 2 shopping centre are large leisure complexes underway as of 2009.

Criticism

A number of important buildings have been lost to development in the latter decades of the 20th century. The

Institute of Welsh Affairs The Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) () is an independent charity and membership-based think-tank based Cardiff, Wales, which specialises in public policy and debate around the economy, education, environment and health sectors in Wales. Hist ...

(IWA) has bemoaned the "frightful" new multi-storey car parks that have replaced key Victorian buildings.Blake, A.
Cardiff's great Victorian architecture is 'under threat'
' South Wales Echo, 30 October 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2011. For example, the classical old fire station in Westgate Street was replaced by a car park in the 1960s. The white stuccoed Capel Ebenezer was replaced by a superstore and the grand Wood Street Congregational Church was replaced by an office block. The IWA argued for more thought by planners for creative re-use of "our sadly neglected historic town centre buildings".

References

Sources

* Crook, M. (ed) (1981), ''The Strange Genius of William Burges: Art-Architect'', 1827–1881. National Museum of Wales. . * * Newman, John (1995), ''The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan'', Penguin Books.

External links

* {{Cardiff