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WHEN FACED WITH A DECISION THAT COULD HAVE DEFINED THE FUTURE OF WELSH ARCHITECTURE, NOSTALGIA TRIUMPHED OVER AMBITION. NOW THE BEST BUILDINGS IN WALES REVEAL ONLY A GLIMPSE OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN, WRITES OWEN PRITCHARD S R E N T R A P + R E T S O F / G N U O Y L E G I N

Above: the Great In 1992 a competition was held to find a auditorium. Yet the building is a material Ruthin Craft Centre by Sergison Bates and Glasshouse, completed by design for an opera house on the site where stereotype of Wales, taking inspiration the Newport City Footbridge across the Foster+Partners in 2000, the now sits. from the nation’s natural beauty, industrial River Usk by Grimshaw with Atkins. All is one of the jewels of Zaha Hadid won the commission and work and cultural heritage. Although it tries to these mark an improvement in locations, the Welsh National was scheduled for completion by 1996 at represent the nation, the building is aided by long overdue WAG central funding. Botanic Gardens the latest. What followed was a farce that nostalgic and overly literal. The rough-cut It is, in fact, outside the capital that resulted in the project being shelved and an stone cladding with seams of glass the most remarkable building can be found. eight-year wait for the Welsh National represent depleted natural resources, the Early in the new millennium, set in the Opera’s new home that cost twice the steel roof represents departed industry, Carmarthenshire countryside, the National original budget. The steering committees, while the calligraphy and poem inscribed Botanic Gardens of Wales was constructed. Conservative government and funding on the roof recalls a rich history of arts. The historic parkland of Middleton Hall bodies conspired to deny a building The building by Rogers Stirk outside Llanarthne became the first that could have defined modern Wales. And Harbour is the better of the two buildings national botanic gardens to be established that lack of a definite concept of a new that occupy the site of Hadid’s proposal. in the UK for 200 years. The centrepiece of Welsh architecture still dogs the country. The impressive undulating Canadian cedar the park is the Great Glasshouse by In 1979 Wales rejected the opportunity roof canopy is delicately cantilevered above Foster+Partners. Completed in 2000, it is of devolution. Following the closure of the a glass box. Here, says Rogers, ‘democracy the largest single spanned glasshouse in the coal mines and the crippling effects of the is not hidden’. The Siambr (debating world. It comprises 785 individual glass miner’s strikes in 1984-85, the country chamber) is a circular room designed into a panels and 24 hollow tubular steel arches. found a new resolve and in 1997 voted in funnel shape – something of a signature for The building is orientated south to ensure favour of devolved powers from , who directed the design. As a maximum daylight for the plants that Westminster. The Welsh Assembly spectacle, it works best from outside, thrive in its Mediterranean climate and it Government (WAG) first sat in 1999 and stepping down the slate steps to the marina is then tilted seven degrees to further Wales slowly emerged from the shadow of edge and the quite beautiful roof canopy maximise its exposure to the sun. The Scargill and Thatcher – but only culturally. engaging with the public space outside. landscaping, the first project by Gustafson ‘In these stones horizons sing’ Inside, the abundance of rooms carved out Porter, carves out cliff edges akin to a proclaims the Wales Millennium Centre by of the interior expose the everyday business quarry to create a rugged, dramatic terrain. Capita Percy Thomas that overlooks of the Assembly. It’s an oddity, yet the remarkable . The £124m cultural centre sits Outside Cardiff, the completion of the structure manages to sit gracefully in the as the focal point of the regenerated Tiger Mostyn Gallery by Ellis Williams rolling countryside. This is one of the few Bay. After the it is Architects in 2010 stands out in North buildings where, in a very literal sense, probably the most famous recent building Wales. Atop Snowdon, the ‘highest slum in architecture looked beyond its borders and in Wales and it is popular with those who Europe’ was replaced with a visitor centre became home to a building that represents visit to see shows in the main 1900-seat by Ray Hole Architects. Then there’s the a less nostalgic, newly empowered Wales.

BLUEPRINT JANUARY 2011