Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre (The Tube)

For the current Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre, see Wales Millennium Centre
Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre

The Tube in 2008
Alternative names The Tube
General information
Status Dismantled
Location Cardiff Bay
Town or city Cardiff
Country Wales
Completed 1991
Demolished 2010
Client CBDC
Design and construction
Architecture firm Alsop, Lyall & Stormer[1]
Awards and prizes RIBA Regional Award (1991)
RIBA National Award (1992)[2]

Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre (known informally as 'the Tube') was a piece of modern architecture designed by the architect Wil Alsop for Cardiff Bay, Wales, in 1990. It was finally dismantled in 2010. A panel of architectural experts has said the building "single-handedly put Cardiff on the architectural map".[3]

Design and construction

Architect Wil Alsop was already involved in the development of the Cardiff Bay Barrage when asked, by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation (CBDC), to design a visitors' centre. The building was completed during the Summer of 1990,[4] located close to the Victorian Pierhead Building.[1] It cost somewhere between £350,000[4] and £500,000[5] and was intended to last only five years.[1][5]

The new building was in the shape of a long flattened tube, glazed at each end. Alsop liked to compare its shape to a disposable cigarette lighter.[4] It was constructed using a series of oval steel ribs, clad with marine plywood and covered with external skin of PVC sheeting.[4][6] Ripple-like slots were cut into the plywood, allowing dappled daylight into the interior.[1] It was shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Building of the Year award (forerunner of the Stirling Prize).[4]

The visitor centre was built to house an exhibition about the new Cardiff Bay development.[4] In 1993 the building needed to be moved from its location east of the Pierhead Building. Rather than permanently dismantle it, the structure was put on the back of a low-loader truck and moved to another part of the Bay.[4] It continued to house interactive exhibitions and a scale model of Cardiff.[7]

Because of its distinctive shape, the visitor centre became known locally as 'The Tube'.[5][7] In 2009 it was listed ninth in the Top Ten free attractions in Wales.[8]

Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre was listed by a panel of experts as one of the Top 50 Buildings of the 1990s, saying the building had "single-handedly put Cardiff on the architectural map".[3]

Later events

The Tube during demolition in September 2011

In 2006 the building's operators, Cardiff Initiative, ceased trading and The Tube closed for several weeks, reopening under the management of Cardiff Council.[7]

The Tube was finally dismantled (and put into storage) in Autumn 2010 to make way for a new link road.[5] "I'm surprised it's lasted this long," said original project architect John Lyall.[5]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 John Newman, "The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan", University of Wales Press (1995), p. 267, ISBN 0-14-071056-6
  2. 1 2 3 Iona Spens (Ed.), "Architectural Monographs No. 33: William Alsop and Jan Stormer", Academy Editions (1993), Biographies, Selected Projects and Awards p. 144, ISBN 1-85490-263-6
  3. 1 2 Fiona Sturges, The 50 Best; THE BEST BUILDINGS; OF THE NINETIES, The Independent, 3 October 1998. Online version retrieved 18 March 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kenneth Powell, "Will Alsop book 1", Lawrence King Publishing (2001), pp. 177–179, ISBN 1-85669-238-8
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Visitor Centre to be dismantled, Building Design, Issue 1933, 17 September 2010, p. 2
  6. ↑ Cardiff Bay Visitors Centre, Architen Landrell. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 Phillip Nifield, Visitor centre back in business, South Wales Echo, 25 February 2006. Online version retrieved 18 March 2012.
  8. ↑ Martin Shipton, Cardiff promotion needs a rethink, South Wales Echo, 18 December 2009. Online version retrieved 18 March 2012.

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