Clash Associates design new budget hotel for Gateway rail station site
Construction has begun on a new 76 bedroom hotel, over six floors, on a high profile site next to Cardiff mainline station.
The hotel has been designed by Clash Associates for Sleeperz (no relation to this magazine), a new company working in conjunction with Network Rail to develop budget hotels at city centre station locations.
The building will occupy a prominent triangular site between listed buildings on Penarth and Saunders Road, and shares a frontage with Cardiff's main railway station.
Peter Clash of Clash Architects, designer of the Cardiff scheme, said:
"The design of Sleeperz Cardiff addresses the brief for a landmark building to meet civic expectations for this city gateway, and the client's objective to bring quality contemporary design to its value-for-money hotel chain.
If you look at the site now, you would find it hard to envisage a 76 bedroom hotel occupying the space. The architectural solution unlocks the potential of a difficult site, allowing a dramatic corner building that responds positively to its urban context."
The building hugs the perimeter of the site, curving sharply at the eastern corner, forming a full stop to the station frontage and defining the extremity of the Station square. A landscaped courtyard is created to the south, between the hotel and the viaduct of the operational railway.
The facades to the hotel comprise a smooth pale Jura limestone with a natural honed finish, echoing the tonal character of the station buildings. Ribbed Jura stone is used vertically around the curved nose of the building. The ground and lower ground floor evident to the south is enclosed with a mixture of full height glazing and solid walls faced with dark blue and black tiling, the whole shifted slightly from the block above.
The windows forming the Saunders Road facade are arranged in a random pattern over four storeys. Each window is glazed with a slight bluegrey tint with a matching aluminium frame, and with vertical strips of ribbed stone at intervals. The windows to the south facing the railway and the Central Hotel are arranged in thin vertical strips between broad areas of smooth limestone.
A Manchester Sleeperz, also designed by Clash Associates, went on site in November 2006. A further Sleeperz hotel, at Newcastle Station and again designed by Clash Associates, is at the planning stage.
www.clasharchitects.co.uk
