Nightingale Associates’ £30m project for Cardiff University has been granted planning permission by Cardiff Council. The new building will transform a derelict railway site into a brand new scientific research facility. Named in honour of the University’s late Deputy Vice Chancellor, Hadyn Ellis, it will become the home of three world-leading research institutes, and provide accommodation for Public Health Wales and the Graduate Centre.
Covering an area of 9,000 sq m, the building will house the well-established Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, and two of the university’s new research institutes (URI’s); the Cancer Stem Cell and Neuroscience and Mental Health Institutes. Designed by Nightingale Associates, it will provide the necessary space and top of the range laboratory, teaching and office facilities required to undertake such important research.
The building will also include a lecture theatre, cafe and a large centralised public atrium with space for exhibitions. The Hadyn Ellis Building is the first of seven planned phases to create a whole new research campus, Maindy Park. The site, nestled between Maindy Road and the Valley’s railway line, will be developed gradually over the course of 10-15 years.
Project Architect, Richard Gollege said: “The Hadyn Ellis Building will act as the 'front door' to the new Maindy Park campus; the large atrium and exhibition space provides an opportunity for the University to showcase their research to a wider audience.
Designed to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ it provides an environmentally sound research facility befitting the quality of the research that will take place within, while the striking mix of coloured glazing and terracotta cladding creates a dynamic building that responds to the mixed architectural context in which it sits."
