Cardiff Archives - Socrates Architects | Jersey, C.I.
Socrates Architects are an award-winning and celebrated creative design-led Jersey architects practice. We operate in Jersey, London, and Nationally.
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05 Mar

Posted at 22:20h in architecture, Cardiff
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Cardiff Bay is known the world over for the waterfront development that transformed an abandoned docks into a thriving tourist destination. But can you imagine how it would look with a beach? How different it would be with a beach next to Mermaid Quay and a swimming pool in the oval basinArchitect Nicholas Socrates' vision of how the bay could look if a beach was constructed next to Mermaid Quay. It also shows the basin at Roald Dahl Plaza transformed into a lido, with people swimming as the Wales Millennium Centre looms.Nicholas said: "Barcelona is a model city. The most famous beach in Barcelona is Barceloneta stretching for three miles. It is an artificial beach but it is marvellous and beautiful! During summer, the beach is always crowded with locals and tourists."Barcelona’s waterfront was originally an old industrial area of vacant warehouses, factories, and rail yards, furthermore, it was polluted by vast landfill sites."However, in preparation for the 1992 Olympic Games its waterfront was regenerated with its artificial sandy beach being a central focus."Water QualityWater quality is key to the success of the proposed Cardiff Bay beach.Nicholas said: "The water within the barrage is supplied from the river Taff and the river Ely with a small amount of salt-water ingress from the main locks whilst allowing boats to pass through."Thanks to the installed oxygenation systems in the bay the quality of the freshwater is greatly improved."The aeration systems may need to be increased and other techniques utilised to improve the water quality to a state where full leisure recreation, like swimming, can take place."ConnectivityGreater connectivity between Cardiff Bay and the city is crucial.Nicholas said: "There are various transport projects aimed at providing greater connectivity between the bay and the city and the wider region at large, but what should take precedence is the regeneration and activation of Lloyd George Avenue to create an exciting boulevard for pedestrian flow, consequentially seamlessly integrating the city into the bay."LidoNicholas said: "Another innovation is to flood the Roald Dahl Plaza bringing the water back into the Oval Basin in front of the Wales Millennium Centre thereby creating a public lido re-animating a former industrial waterway into leisure, activities and recreation."

25 Jun

Posted at 19:26h in architecture, Cardiff, Cities
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Cardiff's Customs House Street residential tower featured in CPS Homes' Cwtch Magazine;"So much of Cardiff would today be unrecognisable to a resident from 1985 – more so perhaps than the city in 1985 would be unrecognisable to a citizen from 1955.
[In Cardiff] There’s an air of excitement, a sense of momentum and trajectory about the place these days. A dynamic, young capital, Cardiff is set to undergo massive changes as it expands and key areas of the city centre experience major redevelopment."

02 Dec

Posted at 14:19h in architecture, Cardiff, cardiff architects, Education
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It has been six months since the last consultation on proposals for a new Welsh medium primary school for Grangetown and Butetown. To say it has been a long process is an understatement.  While when and where it will be built are still uncertain, a local architect has put forward some speculative designs on how it could look.Nick Socrates says he envisages a beautiful building for local people to get excited and optimistic about, a design which can help with the regeneration of an area. He's not been appointed by the council - this is just one architect's vision from within Grangetown.Nick has deliberately made his design location non site-specific but thinks Channel View could be redeveloped and still include leisure. Consultation meetings were held in June with controversy over a proposal to build the school on the Channel View leisure centre site, and redevelop community leisure facilities within the school. Another site in Butetown was suggested, while there has also been a call to rethink other potential sites, including the old gasworks site off Ferry Road - which is earmarked for future housing.

30 Nov

Posted at 18:47h in architecture, Cardiff, cardiff architects, Jersey, jersey architects
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One Cardiff Architects dream of how Cardiff Bay's skyline could be transformed

Nicholas Socrates has come up with an idea of what could fill the empty space next to the Senedd, in Cardiff Bay
Nicholas Socrates' Cardiff Bay Tower design
This is one urban designer’s dream of how the skyline in Cardiff Bay could be transformed – with a tower some 20 storeys high.Cardiff Architects Socrates Associates has come up with an idea of what could fill in the empty space next to the Senedd with his vision for a tower that would dominate the skyline.The plan envisages a mixed use building, with retail on the ground floor, commercial space on the lower half, and homes in the top half offering views over Cardiff Bay and Roath Basin.

23 Nov

Posted at 19:04h in architecture, Cardiff, cardiff architects
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Socrates Associates’ Cardiff Bay tower proposal situated on a small parcel of undeveloped land next to the Richard Rogers’ Welsh Assembly ‘Senedd’ building in Cardiff Bay.The tower is mixed-use – retail on the ground floor, commercial for the lower half – where the floorplates are the largest, and residential for the top half offering unique dwellings with incredible views over Cardiff Bay, Roath Basin and Cardiff at large.