Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, 2004.
Designer: Jonathan Adams. Photographers: Jonathan Adams, Craig Aukland, Sarah Duncan, Fabio Quinci.
Materials: Steel, GRP.
This is the first national cultural institution built since Wales was given a measure of political self-determination. “I knew that I had to look beyond the familiar language of contemporary architecture,” Jonathan Adams says. One of the defining aspects of Welsh culture is the Welsh language. The inscription window of the center was conceived to give scale and a point of focus to the principal west elevation. It was further developed as a device for framing views into and out of the theater foyer area. The characters of the inscription were made just a little larger than the height of an average person. “The analogy between the individual letters and human physical proportions is deliberate,” says Adams. The letters of the inscription are based on Roman forms because these forms are timeless. “I was always moved by the living, organic quality of the characters that seemed to have lost none of their vigor over the 1,500 years since they were cut into the stone,” he adds.
