Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, United Kingdom

December 22, 2010 Category: Cultural, Public Buildings

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama that located in Cardiff, United Kingdom, was designed by BFLS. The college is set within a Grade I listed Royal Park, near the magnificent Cardiff Castle. There are two existing campus buildings: the Raymond Edwards Building, which sits immediately at the rear of the new building, and the Anthony Hopkins Centre, which lies directly to the south of it. Each of the new performance spaces has been conceived as a separate building so that the mass is broken up and human scale is introduced at a street level.

The double-height foyer will reveal stunning views over Bute Park. The space acts as both the ‘spine’ of the building, linking the two performance spaces, and as its ‘lungs,’ circulating warm and cool air through its natural stack chimney effect. Sitting snugly amongst the nearby woods, the new concert hall is entirely clad in horizontal timber screen. The cladding wraps itself around the entire concert hall, with a cutback set inside the foyer allowing access. At the other end of the building, a semi-circular form, clad in near-white Portland stone, accommodates the Richard Burton Theatre. Both the use of Portland stone and vertical fins placed across the facade give nod to the nearby neoclassical buildings.

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama design Exterior