Plans approved for Wales’ tallest building

Designed by architect Scott Brownrigg for developer Rightacres, the new tower will be the tallest in Wales.It will have 364 new apartments.The scheme forms part of the ongoing regeneration of Central Square, completing a wider masterplan designed by Foster & Partners which includes a transport interchange, BBC Wales Headquarters, HMRC offices and more than 500,000 sq ft of commercial space.The building is designed to meet BREEAM Excellent, with air source heat pumps, photovoltaic panels and rain gardens to reduce operational carbon and improved water quality. Work is expected to start on site later this year.Project director Samuel Utting said: “Designed following extensive public consultation and in collaboration with the client, design team and local authority, Plot 5 Central Square provides much needed new homes within a newly regenerated area. The timeless architectural proportions and robust, elegant materials draw upon Cardiff’s rich Victorian heritage to provide an appropriate response to the city context as well as taking some precedence from perhaps the father of the modernist tower, in Miles Van Der Rohe’s seminal buildings on Chicago’s’ Lake Shore Drive and the Seagram Building in New York City.”