BBC Cymru Wales takes possession of new headquarters in Cardiff

The new steel-framed BBC Wales building in Cardiff has officially been handed over to the corporation.

Commissioned by Rightacres Property, the building, designed by Foster + Partners is adjacent to Cardiff Central train station and will be home to some 1200 staff.

Working on behalf of main contractor ISG, Severfield fabricated, supplied and erected more than 2,000t of steelwork for the project.

Gerard Evenden, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners said: “Working on this project has been a truly collaborative effort. The design of the building is inspired by its unique location and the institutional heritage of the BBC, to create a distinctive icon that the people of Cardiff can be proud of.

“A progressive, state-of-the-art workplace for the BBC, it also forms the central focus for the regeneration of this urban quarter, and we look forward to its full opening next year.”

Designed to be open and welcoming, visitors enter via a full-height atrium with views up to the working spaces above, as well as into a new café facing the square. 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.

BBC Director of Property, Alan Bainbridge said: “To hand a building over of this scale and complexity exactly on time and budget is a real achievement. We signed the agreement for lease back in December 2014 and the predicted handover date was today – it has been a fantastic effort by all parties and we now look forward to completing the fit-out ready for occupation next year.”