Millennium Centre - Cardiff Bay

Architect	Jonathan Adams of Capita Percy Thomas
Date Built	Opened November 2004
Location	Cardiff Bay

In designing the Millennium Centre the architect Jonathan Adams wanted it to express "Welshness" and to be instantly recognizable. When asked by Catherine Jones of the Western Mail, how he felt about the fact that some people have fondly knicknamed it "the Armadillo", his response was, “That doesn’t bother me,” ...... “What I take satisfaction from is that people will engage with things I design because, with the vast majority of buildings in the city, people walk past and don’t think anything at all because it doesn’t occur to them. If someone says it looks like an armadillo I take that as a positive thing personally. They are taking an interest in trying to understand it." One way in which he exressed "Welshness" was to use local Welsh materials in its construction. The building contains 1,350 tonnes of multi-coloured slate, native hardwoods from renewable sources in mid-Wales, and stainless steel from Pontypool. An outstanding feature of the centre is the inscription above the entrance written by the Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis. In English it says, "In These Stones Horizons Sing." In Welsh, "Creu Gwir fel gwydr o ffwrnais" which translates as. "Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration." The letters are created by windows that are illuminated at night. Inside the Centre is the Donald Gordon Theatre, the main performance space, named after the South African businessman who made an enormous donation towards the cost of the Millennium Centre. There is also the Weston Studio Theatre, named after the Weston family whose donation enabled the Centre to provide a studio that doubles up as rehearsal space for Welsh National Opera.