WALESONLINE: CARDIFF BAY BEACH AND LIDO REGENERATION

March 5, 2016

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.”

Cardiff Residential Tower - street render - architects Cardiff

CARDIFF’S CUSTOMS HOUSE STREET TOWER FEATURED IN CWTCH MAGAZINE

June 25, 2015

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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.”

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

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

April 24, 2015

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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 NEWS ARTICLE: WELSH MEDIUM 2FE SCHOOL, CARDIFF

December 2, 2014

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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.

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

WESTERN MAIL NEWS ARTICLE: CARDIFF BAY TOWER

November 30, 2014

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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.

JEP NEWS ARTICLE: ST HELIER WATERFRONT MASTERPLAN'S PARK BRIDGE

November 29, 2014

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Bridge proposal to link St Helier waterfront, Jersey

OVER the years the Waterfront has attracted a wide range of novel designs – some quirky, some daring, some unfeasible. But now a Jersey architect says he has found a possible solution to link the Esplanade car park and the unused land over the road. Architect Nick Socrates (30), who grew up in the Island, wants to create two parks connected by a bridge linking the Esplanade car park and unused scrubland on the Waterfront. This, he says, would provide a safe and scenic way to cross a busy road, while adding more green space in the Island’s capital.

E-ARCHITECT NEWS ARTICLE: CARDIFF BAY HIGH-RISE

November 23, 2014

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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.

PARK BRIDGE PROPOSAL, ST HELIER WATERFRONT MASTERPLAN

November 1, 2014

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Park Bridge Development for St Helier’s Waterfront; The park bridge is both a crossing and a place – A sloping park rises up, on both sides, to bridge the main esplanade road, connecting Jersey’s historic town to the new waterfront developments – increasingly an area in which people live – and also connecting to Jersey’s main pedestrian and cycle route to the West of the island.Current state of the masterplan developments; The original Developer has gone bankrupt. The money guaranteed has gone. Sinking of the road (£80m) is now very unlikely Future details of how the complete Masterplan will be rolled out and funded are not known. The timescale appears to have been moved from a maximum of 10 years to 25 years. Public money – £13 million is being loaned towards the underground car park. The commercial/retail effects on St. Helier are unknown. What is the demand for office space, retail, restaurants, etc. in the next 10/25 years?

The current situation is that offices will be built on the existing car-park ‘Esplanade Quarter’ as a watered-down version of the masterplan. The tunnel will never be phased in and therefore the problem, of the Esplanade road dislocating the waterfront from St Helier, will remain.