Category Archives: architecture

CARDIFF BAY BEACH - Architects Cardiff

WALESONLINE: CARDIFF BAY BEACH AND LIDO REGENERATION

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Cardiff Bay is known the world over for the waterfront development that transformed an abandoned docks into a thriving tourist destination. But can you imagine how it would look with a beach? How different it would be with a beach next to Mermaid Quay and a swimming pool in the oval basin

Architect Nicholas Socrates‘ vision of how the bay could look if a beach was constructed next to Mermaid Quay. It also shows the basin at Roald Dahl Plaza transformed into a lido, with people swimming as the Wales Millennium Centre looms.

Nicholas said: “Barcelona is a model city. The most famous beach in Barcelona is Barceloneta stretching for three miles. It is an artificial beach but it is marvellous and beautiful! During summer, the beach is always crowded with locals and tourists.

“Barcelona’s waterfront was originally an old industrial area of vacant warehouses, factories, and rail yards, furthermore, it was polluted by vast landfill sites.

“However, in preparation for the 1992 Olympic Games its waterfront was regenerated with its artificial sandy beach being a central focus.”

Water Quality

Water quality is key to the success of the proposed Cardiff Bay beach.

Nicholas said: “The water within the barrage is supplied from the river Taff and the river Ely with a small amount of salt-water ingress from the main locks whilst allowing boats to pass through.

“Thanks to the installed oxygenation systems in the bay the quality of the freshwater is greatly improved.

“The aeration systems may need to be increased and other techniques utilised to improve the water quality to a state where full leisure recreation, like swimming, can take place.”

Connectivity

Greater connectivity between Cardiff Bay and the city is crucial.

Nicholas said: “There are various transport projects aimed at providing greater connectivity between the bay and the city and the wider region at large, but what should take precedence is the regeneration and activation of Lloyd George Avenue to create an exciting boulevard for pedestrian flow, consequentially seamlessly integrating the city into the bay.”

Lido

Nicholas said: “Another innovation is to flood the Roald Dahl Plaza bringing the water back into the Oval Basin in front of the Wales Millennium Centre thereby creating a public lido re-animating a former industrial waterway into leisure, activities and recreation.”

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SHORTLISTED: LIGHT EMITTING CONCRETE FOR DESIGNBOOM’s LED COMPETITION & SELECTION FOR GWANGJU’s INTERNATIONAL DESIGN BIENNALE

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Delighted to announce our LED lighting innovation ‘Light Emitting Concrete‘ has been shortlisted for DESIGNBOOM’s ‘Happy LED Life’ competition and it has been selected for the prestigous exhibition at Gwangju’s 2015 International Design Biennale, where the winner will be selected.

This competition was about discovering new ways of experiencing the familiar and realising the potential of design on a social, cultural and environmental level through LED lighting.

The brief was to explore smart lighting ideas and products for public and private spaces seeking to improve our lit environment through LED technology, while raising awareness around low-energy consumption, developing sustainable and imaginative LED lighting solutions for production by Korean technology companies, supporting the local design community and the greater Asian economy.

The theme of the 2015 Biennale is ‘Conviviality with Design’.
It seeks to portray the way in which good design is not only functionally outstanding, but how it accompanies our lives in a way that improves our existence; adding energy and pleasure to our daily activities through tangible and intangible values.

Gwangju International Design Biennale 2015 aims at getting the public to rediscover the essence of design, and the power it can bring to individuals and corporations in contemporary times, particularly in relationship to the growing presence of standardized technology.

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Park-Bridge-Esplanade-Quarter-St-Helier-waterfront-Jersey-architects

PARK-BRIDGE SELECTED FOR AJ’S ARCHITECTURE TOMORROW GALLERY AT MIPIM

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We have been selected to appear in The Architects Journal (AJ) ‘The Architecture Tomorrow Gallery’ for our project Park Bridge in the Bridges category at MIPIM UK this year (2015). The AJ had a huge volume of entries this year, the quality of which were of a very high standard so being curated is a superb achievement. This is Fantastic news!

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Cardiff Residential Tower - street render - architects Cardiff

CARDIFF’S CUSTOMS HOUSE STREET TOWER FEATURED IN CWTCH MAGAZINE

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Cardiff’s Customs House Street residential tower featured in CPS Homes’ Cwtch Magazine;

“So much of Cardiff would today be unrecognisable to a resident from 1985 – more so perhaps than the city in 1985 would be unrecognisable to a citizen from 1955.

[In Cardiff] There’s an air of excitement, a sense of momentum and trajectory about the place these days. A dynamic, young capital, Cardiff is set to undergo massive changes as it expands and key areas of the city centre experience major redevelopment.”

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Barry Water Sports Activity Centre - Barry Quary Marina Developments - cardiff

SHORTLISTED DESIGN: £2M WATER ACTIVITY CENTRE AWARDED SECOND PLACE

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Shortlisted design for the Barry Community Water Activity Centre

Our design for a water activity centre located in Barry Marina, South Wales was shortlisted and then finally came in at second place.

Find our more about it on the BCWAC (Barry Community Water Activity Centre) website at; http://www.bcwac.org.uk/ and see some of our featured design entry images at http://socratesarchitects.com/portfolio/bcwac-competition-entry/

Grangetown School - cardiff architects

GRANGETOWN NEWS ARTICLE: WELSH MEDIUM 2FE SCHOOL, CARDIFF

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It has been six months since the last consultation on proposals for a new Welsh medium primary school for Grangetown and Butetown.

To say it has been a long process is an understatement. 

While when and where it will be built are still uncertain, a local architect has put forward some speculative designs on how it could look.

Nick Socrates says he envisages a beautiful building for local people to get excited and optimistic about, a design which can help with the regeneration of an area. He’s not been appointed by the council – this is just one architect’s vision from within Grangetown.

Nick has deliberately made his design location non site-specific but thinks Channel View could be redeveloped and still include leisure.

Consultation meetings were held in June with controversy over a proposal to build the school on the Channel View leisure centre site, and redevelop community leisure facilities within the school. Another site in Butetown was suggested, while there has also been a call to rethink other potential sites, including the old gasworks site off Ferry Road – which is earmarked for future housing.

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One Cardiff architects's dream of how Cardiff Bay's skyline could be transformed - Wales Online

WESTERN MAIL NEWS ARTICLE: CARDIFF BAY TOWER

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One Cardiff Architects dream of how Cardiff Bay’s skyline could be transformed

Nicholas Socrates has come up with an idea of what could fill the empty space next to the Senedd, in Cardiff Bay

Nicholas Socrates’ Cardiff Bay Tower design

This is one urban designer’s dream of how the skyline in Cardiff Bay could be transformed – with a tower some 20 storeys high.

Cardiff Architects Socrates Associates has come up with an idea of what could fill in the empty space next to the Senedd with his vision for a tower that would dominate the skyline.

The plan envisages a mixed use building, with retail on the ground floor, commercial space on the lower half, and homes in the top half offering views over Cardiff Bay and Roath Basin.

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ARCHITECTS-CARDIFF-BAY-TOWER

E-ARCHITECT NEWS ARTICLE: CARDIFF BAY HIGH-RISE

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Socrates Associates’ Cardiff Bay tower proposal situated on a small parcel of undeveloped land next to the Richard Rogers’ Welsh Assembly ‘Senedd’ building in Cardiff Bay.

The tower is mixed-use – retail on the ground floor, commercial for the lower half – where the floorplates are the largest, and residential for the top half offering unique dwellings with incredible views over Cardiff Bay, Roath Basin and Cardiff at large.

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Inside the Cheesegrater London's latest skyscraper

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Workers will be whisked skywards at a stomach-dropping 18mph in the Richard Rogers-designed Leadenhall building

London’s escalating love affair with giddying views will reach a new height this autumn. Starting in November, up to 6,000 City workers will move their swivel chairs and espresso machines into the highest offices in Britain, in the Leadenhall building.

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London's Gherkin skyscraper put on the market

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Foreign buyer expected to purchase the 40-storey office building, with agents hoping for offers of around £650m

One of London’s most recognisable landmarks, the Gherkin, has been put up for sale and is expected to be snapped up by an overseas buyer.

The 40-storey City of London skyscraper was put into receivership in April, and the agents appointed to sell it are hoping for offers in the region of £600m to £650m. Savills and Deloitte Real Estate have been jointly instructed to sell the 505,000 sq ft (46,900 sq m) office building, which was designed by Lord Foster and opened in 2004. The two firms said marketing of the Gherkin including an advertising campaign and a dedicated website was about to begin, "with interest expected to come from all corners of the globe".

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Canary Wharf spreads east with new towers and 3,000 homes planned

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Wood Wharf project gets green light in financial hub’s first major expansion since 2008 financial crisis

More than 3,000 homes are to be built at the eastern edge of Canary Wharf after Tower Hamlets council approved the project, the first extension to the financial district since the 2008 banking crisis.

Canary Wharf Group, majority-owned by Songbird Estates, has been granted planning permission to construct 30 buildings, comprising 4.9m square feet of homes, offices and shops, at Wood Wharf, just a stone’s throw from the headquarters of some of the world’s largest banks.

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China town: meet the architecture giant with Asian designs on London

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Aedas’s mixed-use malls and elevated walkways might work in China, but will these mammoth towers blot Britain’s capital?

Their buildings dot the globe, but you probably couldn’t name one, nor would you ever guess they had come from the same practice. They have built a gargantuan conference centre in China that looks like a teetering stack of mirror-clad Jenga blocks, an enormous concert hall in Singapore in the shape of a crumpled beetle, and over 9.3m sq metres (100m sq ft) of shops, offices and hotels in variously sculpted towers across Asia and the Middle East. Now Aedas, one of the largest architecture practices in the world, plans to bring its flashy brand of mixed-use huge projects to London. And there is very little to stand in their way.

Our Chinese clients have their sights set on London, and they know what they want, says Keith Griffiths, the Welsh-born chairman of Aedas, who presides over the 1,400-strong practice from its Hong Kong headquarters. They are used to high rise, high density, truly mixed-use developments having everything on one site, so you can live, work and play without ever leaving the building. We think that’s the way London needs to densify.

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Inside the Shard, floor by floor – interactive

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Over the coming days the skyscraper’s owners will attempt to persuade the property industry that it is finally more than just a nice view. But even with all of the support coming from Doha for one of the country’s highest profile investments, the office complex will only be around a third full. Roll over the graphic to find out how much of each section of the building is currently occupied … Continue reading…

Architecture in 2014: singing bins, talking pavements and skygardens

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From crime-fighting lampposts to Zaha Hadid’s Olympic pool opening for business and a rise in social housing (finally), Oliver Wainwright charts the trends that will dominate 2014

It may sound like a prediction made while still high on brandy butter, drunk with New Year optimism, but 2014 will see an increase in the volume and quality of social housing built by local authorities for the first time in decades. After a rule change that allows councils to spend housing rental income on building new homes, and a relaxation of local authority borrowing caps, up to 25,000 council homes could be built over the next five years. East London borough Newham is leading the way, with a pilot project of modular homes designed by Richard Rogers, along with opportunities for younger architects to get involved. Let’s hope we see more initiatives like Peabody’s recent competition, allowing smaller practices to bypass cumbersome EU procurement rules.

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