BBC Wales Headquarters, Cardiff

Judi Loach argues that the Welsh Assembly’s decision not to list this building sets a dire precedent

First published Summer 2014

The BBC Wales building in Llandaff is arguably the finest post-war building extant in the Welsh capital, and it is certainly among the handful of finest from the period in the country as a whole. The two leading post-war practices in Wales were Percy Thomas and Son, and Alex Gordon and Partners, and they were responsible for the majority of significant public buildings in any Modernist idiom, at least across South Wales. In fact Percy Thomas and Son only really adopted full- blown Modernism from 1958, with the appointment of Dale Owen as principal designer in their Welsh office (until his retirement in 1989). Besides the BBC building Owen's major public buildings were for the University of Wales' colleges – now independent universities – at Cardiff (1960-70) and Aberystwyth (1970-72) designed at Percy Thomas & Son, and for the National Museum of Wales at St Fagan's (1968-81), designed in his own private practice; of these buildings his Arts Centre at Aberystwyth (1970-72; Eisteddfod Gold Medal for Architecture, 1972) is widely regarded as the most significant. In comparison with his other buildings in Cardiff, the BBC building is generally accepted as being far superior to the buildings at St Fagan's (1968-81; Eisteddfod Gold Medal for Architecture, 1978), which were listed in 2012. His principal buildings for Cardiff University, the Tower and adjacent pre-clinical Buildings, have been considerably denatured by subsequent alterations, thus leaving his BBC building as the best example of his, and the practice's, work in Cardiff.

Owen's superiority to his Welsh contemporaries is in large part due to his wider experience, having not only worked in London (most notably as an architect-planner for William Holford's well-reputed practice) as well as Wales but also, and more crucially, having undertaken postgraduate training in the USA at MIT, after which he worked for Walter Gropius in his practice in Cambridge Mass. (TAC: The Architects Collaborative). Consequently his design work displayed an unusually rigorous attention to massing and articulation; a particular regard for planning and the relation of buildings to their landscape setting; the use of courtyard planning for residential purposes (much developed in Modern Movement designs in and around Cambridge, Mass.).

The BBC building well displays the lessons learnt from such broad experience. The site had been that of a house in extensive grounds, with many mature trees, and Owen exploited this by locating his building along the roadside of the site, so as to preserve as much as possible of the grounds, thus providing an idyllic outlook from the offices and, above all, from the largely glazed staff restaurant/ club. Again exploiting the site, in this case its natural gradient, the building was raised on piloti at the lower end, so as to enable the car parking (since extended) to be concealed beneath it. The façade onto the road is extensive and could therefore have become somewhat monotonous but
Owen avoided that by dividing the building into sections – the single storey, glazed restaurant; the higher (four storey) administration block, distinguished by its clear banding of white masonry (dazzling white concrete, thanks to the use of marble aggregate) and glazing; the low-rise, largely opaque sound studios, in the same white concrete, articulated by large protruding blocks (minimally glazed in their reveals) at the upper level (and with only shallow horizontal glazing bands beneath); the slightly taller music studio,

its lower part entirely glazed and its upper part (again in the same white concrete) distinguished by a band of river stone pebbles and the projecting ends of the structural beams inside; the more opaque television studios, with yet another variation in glazing. The entire development, however, is held together by the use of a limited palette of materials – concrete of the same distinctive aggregate throughout, and glazing – and careful proportions. The river stone used to articulate the music studio section relates to the retaining walls at road level but also marries up with a stone wall running through the building and only visible from inside, the architect's evocation of Le Corbusier's Pavillon Suisse in Paris.

Inside, Studio 1, the concert hall/ recording studio designed with the BBC's regional orchestra, now the National Orchestra of Wales, in mind, is an iconic design and probably the only such studio of the time remaining intact.

Owen's sophistication and refinement can be judged by comparing those of his most renowned contemporary in Wales, Alex Gordon. Gordon's work is accomplished but now seems rather bulky and ungainly, whereas Owen's seems better proportioned and has a lighter feel to it. Even relatively minor buildings, such as his Brynhafren Comprehensive School in Barry, have been remarked upon for being 'elegantly detailed' (John Newman, Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan).

This building is thus the outstanding Modernist building of the post-war era in Cardiff, and indeed one of the very few in Wales that can stand comparison with first rate architecture abroad. As such it well deserved to be listed, indeed probably at Grade II*.
In February 2012 an application for listing was submitted to Cadw, but due to staffing shortages this was not dealt with until early 2014. Meanwhile, in late summer 2013 the BBC Wales building in Llandaff was put on the market, leading to suspicion the BBC had heard of the listing application. The application was therefore supported by C20 Society and DOCOMOMO-UK. Cadw then forwarded those statements to BBC for comment, but we were unable to see that response – in fact a rebuttal prepared by the sales agents! – until its disclosure was forced through a Freedom of Information request. By then it was too late

to submit additional material before the Welsh Assembly's Minister of Culture and Sport, John Griffiths, made his decision, in fact overruling Cadw's recommendation to list. Griffiths is a solicitor who has only held this portfolio since March 2013, and has neither any academic or professional qualification nor any previous experience in the field of culture, let alone of heritage. But he is also the minister responsible for BBC policy in Wales – surely a conflict of interest?

This ruling has dire implications for all future listing applications. First, if the Minister refuses to list this building, then it is hard to see how any post-war building in Wales can be. Second, the current process seems unsatisfactory, with lack of transparency, etc. But then this is the administration that rescinded the listing of the first post-war building in England or Wales to be listed, the Brynmawr rubber factory, and indeed which paid for its demolition; and which most recently has allowed the demolition of Evans & Shalev's Bettws School and just this spring the destruction of the Chartist mural in Newport.