The Atrium, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Holder Mathias Architects designed the £35m Atrium, for the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, which is part of the University of Glamorgan.
The five-storey 10,500 sq ft city centre building with signature floor to ceiling windows, a three-storey spiral staircase and an indoor footbridge is one of the UK’s most extensive arts and media training centres.

Holder Mathias have delivered state of the art facilities with TV, radio, film and animation studios, a cinema, theatre, performance spaces and computer labs. There are many other resources including research spaces for music, drama, dance, graphics, media, fashion, architecture, photography and cultural studies. Subjects taught range from art and design to media and communications with access to undergraduate, post-graduate and research degree programmes.

The Atrium now brings under one roof 2000 students and 120 staff who were previously spread over five different buildings, allowing them much greater interaction with each other. The building and environment do not look like a university building, rather more a professional complex, which helps to better prepare the students for the outside world.

The new architectural icon is a major development for Wales attracting considerable interest from the media, arts and cultural industries from all over the UK.

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