The Supreme Gold Award is the highest honour for overall winner. The Gold Awards reward excellence in retail-led development and recognise projects that drive regeneration and improve the quality of the built environment. The judges praised St David’s shopping centre’s innovative architectural design by Benoy, which has ensured integration into the city’s established streetscape. The judges also highlighted the creation of iconic landmark buildings and new streets with public spaces for Cardiff.
St David’s covers 1.4 million square feet, anchored by the largest John Lewis store outside London, and has attracted a footfall of 36 million in the first year of trading. The development has rejuvenated the existing St David’s arcade and created a new landmark retail centre, in the heart of Wales’ Capital City.
Benoy’s design for St David’s seamlessly blends into the urban fabric, taking account of Cardiff’s geography and history. Benoy has worked with the existing contours and architectural heritage of the city, so that St David’s provides a modern adaptation of Cardiff’s Victorian arcades.
Design highlights include the new tulip tree area – the ‘atrium’ – which features a circular double height space with glazed roof and incorporates public artworks in the form of sculptural panels in the circular bulkhead and patterning in the floor in various stone finishes.
The architects aimed to echo the discreet sense of scale and texture, unique to Cardiff and South Wales by striking a balance between the engineering quality of the arcade and a lighter, more delicate touch for the finishes. Natural stone, light-coloured timbers, reflected light and other natural materials are employed to create a true sense of Welsh space. Interesting and exciting pieces of art help in creating an identity for St David’s giving it a truly Welsh sense of place.
Grand Arcade, the centre piece for St David’s creates an atmosphere that is both uplifting and inspiring – creating an almost contemporary cathedral like quality with the gentle curve of the arcade leading the eye towards the John Lewis anchor store at the southern end of the arcade.
The £675 million ($1 billion) mixed-use development includes more than 300 residential units, the environmentally leading civic library and improvements to the public realm. The new St David’s provides a uniquely engaging setting which has attracted many iconic brands and leading retailers including Apple, Hugo Boss, Radley, LK Bennett, Crabtree & Evelyn and Kurt Geiger; all of whom have opened stores in Wales for the first time.
The centre is a joint-venture between British commercial property company Land Securities and Capital Shopping Centres. Land Securities’ MD for Retail, Richard Akers, stated that it is the sixth time they have won the Supreme Gold Award since they started seven years ago.
