Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre (The Tube)

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For the current Cardiff Bay visitor centre, see Wales Millennium Centre.
Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre
Cardiff Bay visitor centre - geograph.org.uk - 832145.jpg
The Tube in 2008
Alternative namesThe Tube
General information
StatusDismantled
LocationCardiff Bay
Town or cityCardiff
CountryWales
Completed1991
Demolished2010
ClientCBDC
Design and construction
Architecture firmAlsop, Lyall & Stormer[1]
Awards and prizesRIBA 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]The site is going to be the new home for the Museum of Military Medicine[9]

Awards[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d John Newman, "The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan", University of Wales Press (1995), p. 267, ISBN 0-14-071056-6
  2. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Fiona Sturges, The 50 Best; THE BEST BUILDINGS; OF THE NINETIES, The Independent, 3 October 1998. Online version retrieved 18 March 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Kenneth Powell, "Will Alsop book 1", Lawrence King Publishing (2001), pp. 177–179, ISBN 1-85669-238-8
  5. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c 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.
  9. ^ "WHERE | The Museum of Military Medicine". The Museum of Milita. Retrieved 26 December 2019.

External links[]

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