Redeveloping the site of the old West Wing to Cardiff’s Royal Infirmary with a new landmark property, offering a variety of student accommodation, meant that the district’s strong history had to be taken into consideration, all while ensuring that the building could compete with other developments across the city’s rapidly evolving university quarter.

As the landowner and an internationally renowned developer, Mace undertook extensive community consultation in order to garner local perspectives and knowledge, as well as working closely with the planning authorities and other stakeholders to optimise the outcome for all concerned.

This required assembling an expert project team with relevant education sector experience and an understanding of Cardiff as a capital having a great trading past, which is also undergoing a renaissance as one of Europe’s fastest growing conurbations, with a burgeoning commercial heart.

In order to appeal to both undergraduates and post-graduates with differing requirements and budgets, and to complement its surroundings, the new multi-storey structure needed to employ a palette of contemporary materials which would not only offer the project team design flexibility and practicality, but also respond to planning constraints and respect its surroundings.       

The new West Wing student accommodation scheme has been built by Mace for end client, Ares Generation by the Midlands and South-West arm of Galliford Try, delivering a mix of 644 bed-study places, such as studios, clusters and apartments.  Designed with inclusivity in mind by architects, The Kalyvides Partnership, the property also provides accessible studios, while a pair of retail units turn the street corners.

The design focuses on a large central courtyard, which provides a safe and semi-private space for students to enjoy as a secure setting, helping to create a community atmosphere. Across both the external and courtyard elevations, warm feeling, traditional masonry in the modern context achieves the connection to the very mixed vernacular architecture.

As a specialist in urban design and regeneration, The Kalyvides Partnership made its choice of brick types – and other cladding materials – on the basis of how their colours and textures would respond to the changing light conditions on a daily basis, as well as for their long-term performance potential.

As described by the architects, the ground level base is picked-out with darker brickwork to express the mixed uses at the pedestrian level; while the masonry above has been designed to complement the street character by forming ‘shoulder heights’ at levels 4/5/6, with curtain walling above.

Meanwhile, precise brickwork cladding defines the offset hole-in-wall fenestration patterns, with further visual interest coming from the contrasting grey toned bricks separated by aluminium channels on all the façades.

The eloquent use of brickwork, including bond pattern and joint details, form an integral part of The Kalyvides Partnership’s strategy for this imposing new residential property, with the architects speaking of the way it is juxtaposed with other contemporary cladding materials to articulate their desired designs.

A spokesperson for Kalyvides Partnership commented: “The aspiration was to develop a high-quality scheme in line with the client’s Here! Student Living brand, making a positive contribution to the local area. The design strives for simple refinement and elegance in a cubic architectural language. Effectively the development achieves a community spirit through the use of traditional materials in a modern idiom.  As part of this the use of durable masonry draws inspiration from the local context: to counter the vertical massing, a horizontal emphasis is created with the selected brickwork, characterised by heavily struck horizontal natural mortar and lesser struck vertical joints.”  

Three sections of dark grey (Broadway Dark Multi) are interspersed within the mid grey (Clifton Grey Multi) to the frontages. The mid grey brickwork is prevalent on the street façades, whilst the lighter grey brickwork (Quartz Grey, now discontinued) encloses the private courtyard to create a more open character. Tones of grey masonry and PPC coated aluminium create interest, subtly changing hues depending on the natural light and time of day.

The internal and external corners of the West Wing incorporate factory cut brickwork to precisely meet the oblique angles of the doughnut configuration, while the junction of Moira Terrace and Glossop Road is marked by stitched corner brickwork with neatly overlapping units. Together, the two architectural features are strengthened with offset mid grey brickwork forming a sculptural façade focused on the long vista at Longcross Street.

The higher rise local landmark facing Newport Road Lane includes interesting hybrid aesthetic features, with metal insert modular panels graduating and alternating with brickwork, blending the cladding materials and creating a combination of metal at high levels to masonry at lower zones.  These elements create a local landmark conducive the distinctive character of the development when entering Cardiff City from the east.