Challenges
Over the past decade, the Capital Quarter redevelopment has provided more than 370,000ft2 of new office space and will eventually accommodate more than 3,000 staff. It is already home to Finance Wales, Alert Logic, WSP-Parsons Brinckerhoff, Network Rail, Home Office, Public Health Wales and Opus Energy.
The wider Capital Quarter scheme is well on track to delivering over 1,000,000ft2 of development including residential, café and student accommodation.
No 4 Capital Quarter, the eight-storey canal-side landmark office building designed to BREEAM Excellent, is the fourth building to rise in the prestigious development in the heart of the city’s Enterprise Zone. The building incorporates the occupational density of open floor plates to suit the current and future needs of modern office occupiers as well as a central atrium, high-quality reception, sixth-floor roof terrace and ground-floor retail and leisure units.
Solutions
The Aruba Tegular15 mineral tiles had already been used by main contractor JR Smart on the previous office projects and were specified, with their approval, for this latest, 96,870ft2 Grade A building which is now home to Sky UK, legal firm Geldards and financial services company Optimum Credit.
Some 11,000m2 of the Aruba panels were supplied to No 4 by the Cardiff branch of distributor Nevill Long and installed on the 2.7m floor-to-ceiling heights by specialist sub-contractor 2nd Generation Facades.
Fully recyclable, Aruba is the next evolution in ceiling tiles. The tiles provide a balanced acoustic performance of up to 0.65 aw, Class C sound absorption, and a sound attenuating performance of up to 39 dB. The perforation design of Aruba is unique to standard tiles, creating a smooth, contemporary finish.
JR Smart construction director Gareth Smart said: “It has been a great 12 months at Capital Quarter which is testament to the commitment and hard work of the whole Capital Quarter development team, including our professional advisers and sub-contractors who I would personally like to thank.”
