Cardiff and Vale College, Curran Road
Cardiff and Vale College is redeveloping St William House, an existing multi-storey office building, into a modern further education facility across five floors. We are providing specialist acoustic consultancy to support the refurbishment and change of use.
Our Role
The £16 million scheme, designed by Rio Architects, transforms a former commercial (Class B1) building into a multi-use educational environment (Class D1), accommodating a wide range of teaching, technical and creative spaces.
Our input focuses on compliance with Building Bulletin 93 (BB93) and on managing the challenge of introducing high-noise activities such as music, film and dance into an existing structure. This includes enhanced sound insulation strategies, guidance on box-in-box construction for specialist spaces, coordination with mechanical services to control internal noise levels, and reverberation treatment for both cellular and open-plan areas.
Retrofitting specialist acoustic solutions within the constraints of the existing building fabric, structural grid and floor loadings requires close coordination between architectural, structural and MEP disciplines.
The Outcome
The building also includes communal and breakout areas, a café, large feature voids and interconnected staircases, which create complex sound paths across several floors. Careful zoning, strategic placement of absorptive materials and attention to the relationship between quiet and noisy functions manage noise transfer through these spaces.
Our design approach supports a balanced acoustic environment that enables both focused learning and collaborative activity in a flexible, modern college building.
Project Highlights
- Location: St William House, Curran Road, Cardiff
- Client: Cardiff and Vale College
- Architect: Rio Architects
- Value: £16 million
- Office to further education change of use across five floors
- BB93 compliance with music, film and dance spaces
- Box-in-box construction guidance
- Services: Acoustics