Contract awarded at Royal Welsh College

Client: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Contractor: Wilmott Dixon Construction
Architect: Davis Langdon

The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama has begun its redevelopment: South Wales construction company Willmott Dixon has started work on the multimillion pound project to build a first-class suite of training performance facilities for musicians, actors, theatre designers and stage managers.

The £22.5m landmark project, on Cardiff's North Road, will include a 450 seat concert hall, a 160 seat courtyard theatre, four acting and movement studios and exhibition arcade to further raise the already high quality and profile of the college’s training provision internationally.

The new facilities will link to the existing buildings to create a new landmark entrance to Cardiff from the North. The Theatre and Concert Hall will be accessed from a new public foyer opening out to views of Bute Park and a park-side terrace. The project is set for completion in early 2011.

Swift Horsman have been awarded the supply and installation of the ceiling and internal wall panelling to the Concert Hall. The ceiling is constructed in a mixture of GRG to the perimeter area with taped and jointed MF plasterboard to the centre and lower perimeter section. There are glazed opening panels to the centre section of the ceiling which we are to also supply and install.

The wall panelling consists of shaped, bonded 50mm thick birch plywood outer panels in 3 sections ranging from 3-5 meters in height coupled with routered acoustic plywood panels bonded to the walls. There are also shaped MDF fins supplied and fitted to the perimeter walls at balcony level with acoustic pads fixed between, reaching approx 5-7 meters in height.

A fairly short programme of 12 weeks and working at height (ceiling is approx 12metres from floor level) present our biggest challenges.