BBC Wales Building, Cardiff

A bespoke metal and timber roof garden for the new BBC Wales headquarters building in Cardiff.

A Bespoke Roof Garden

The roof garden is a striking feature of the Foster + Partners designed building. A curved opening in the metal roof plane allows natural light into the garden, which offers views across the city and provides a stunning location for outdoor filming.

The roof garden is large and complex, defining a total footprint of circa. 140 sq m, with the central focus being continuous lengths of sinuous Iroko FSC timber benching with Stainless Steel armrests.

The core structure of the garden was manufactured from 3.0mm Zintec Steel, Polyester Powder Coated [PPC] with a specialist product Powdertech Anomatch BGB 717. Given the high spec., a robust 4-stage PPC paint system was applied suitable for C3/C4 environments.

The ramped walkway and wheelchair access was clad, on both sides, with 3.0mm Aluminium PPC, in repeats to match the perimeter glass balustrading. Additional design integration was required to accommodate lighting and electrical distribution chambers within the garden structure.

A £120 Million Development

The new BBC Wales headquarters building is a £120 million development in a key location on Central Square, directly opposite Cardiff Central Railway Station. Comprising 150,000 sq ft the building is set over four floors, and includes office, studio and production space, for 1,200 BBC Wales staff. The building has been developed by Cardiff-based property development firm Rightacres Property, and designed by Foster + Partners. Rightacres is also the developer for the entire Central Square masterplan, which will ultimately comprise a million sq ft of mixed-use development.

The roof garden was commissioned, installed and planted by Afan Landscapes, on behalf of Principal Contractor ISG UK Construction West. Granite paving was laid to floor space and the ramped walkway and specimen shrubs were planted within the bespoke planters.

The essential design concept was by Foster + Partners; The value engineering, design detailing and development, manufacture and supply was covered by Afan Landscapes. Our strategic partner for the planter supply was IOTA.