The Cardiff Bay Lady

24 Oct 2005

The new Welsh Assembly Building by Richard Rogers Partnership moves, exhaustingly for all involved, towards practical completion, thus assuring six months to resolve teething troubles before His/Her Majesty performs the obligatory opening ceremony in March 2006 and reminding everyone nationalism is not on the agenda.

Cardiff, celebrating 100 years as a city, 50 as Welsh capital, encapsulates the rise of a new Welsh nationalism symbolised by this building, which has been described as “heralding a new style of government and a turning pointing the history of Wales”, yet for many, as a political entity it simply highlights the shortcomings. They envy us Scots our devolution.

In its splendid orientation towards Cardiff Bay, the building demands a formal arrival by water. A cascade of steps in oak and slate lead from the water’s edge to the highest point inside the Assembly Building – the public gallery – in a manner that conjures up images of the arrival of the royal barge accompanied by Handel’s music for the Prince of Wales’ coronation as George II. Looking up at the massive plinth –1,200 tonnes of Welsh slate – I was reminded of Coleridge’s observation on entering Edinburgh for the first time, viewing the Old Town as carved from the rock on which it stood. Above this monolith hovers the wonderfully crafted roof, which, in its orientation and design, establishes the low-energy ‘green’ agenda for this building; designed to eliminate heat at the height of summer and warm the building in winter.

It defines the building as a new national landmark for Wales. The toroidal geometry of the roof soffit formed in western red cedar is extruded down through the public concourse, plunging through the massive slate base to form a ventilated natural light cone above the Assembly Chamber itself, which floods the subterranean chamber in sunlight or, more normally, the prevailing grey of Cardiff’s skies. Sandwiched between concourse and chamber is the visitor’s gallery – redolent of Ken Adam in his Goldfinger period. For me the most fantastic space in the building, associations flood in – shaker; valleys chapel; Kubrick; Bond; and Saarinen, among others. However, the essence of the building and the brilliance of the design team are defined by the section, the simplicity of which encapsulates the whole brief. Members are always overlooked by visitors, yet natural light floods the chambers and committee rooms of the lowest level, inhabited by these elected representatives.

When developing ideas for our own submission for the second stage of the Scottish Parliament Building competition, we visited several new European chambers – among them Gunther Benisch’s Bonn Bundestag. This is the Welsh Assembly’s closest antecedent in its simplicity, elegance of section and transparency. In both, the Assembly and Committee Rooms are the focus under a low roof-dominated classical typology with the machine rooms – the offices of MPs, permanent secretaries and support staff – relegated to an anonymous office building. In Bonn, a twenty-storey black monolith, never seen in any photographs, overlooks the Rhine. Here a red-brick ‘warehouse’.

Such dislocation seems entirely appropriate and enhances the focus on to the most important part of government –the legislature.
Richard Wilson, the projects director, who steered me through the building visit, has the right personality to fend off the many criticisms coming from elected members wishing to impact on the process. The tales he re-tells are well known to us since Fraser – all sound strangely familiar. However, learning the lessons of our experience, it may be heresy to suggest that the Design and Build form of contract eventually entered into here has permitted the project to steer clear of many issues of changes of opinion and political climates, defusing any possible arguments over escalating cost.

Five thousand square metres for £41m – £8,000 per square metre –may be bargain basement as parliaments go these days, but the people of Wales have a very sophisticated lady overlooking Cardiff Bay. Hopefully with the representation and argument to match.

Gordon Murray