Plans approved for new residential tower in Cardiff

Plans have been approved for Plot 5 Central Square, a new 35 storey residential tower next to Cardiff Central station. Designed by Scott Brownrigg for developer Rightacres, the new tower will be the tallest in Wales and will provide 364 new apartments, high quality amenity spaces and internal cycle parking.The scheme forms part of the ongoing regeneration of Central Square, completing a wider masterplan designed by Foster and Partners which includes a transport interchange, BBC Wales Headquarters, HMRC offices and over 500,000 sq ft of commercial space. Helping to redefine the commercial centre of Cardiff.Retail provision and cafés along the ground and first floors of the tower will frame main routes into the square and activate the street. Within the square, a new two storey restaurant pavilion contributes to the creation of a vibrant new destination in the heart of Cardiff.The building is being 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.Of the design, 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.”