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Just a year since it opened its new £22.5m performance and rehearsal space, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama has won four British Architecture Awards from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
The College was presented with the Welsh Building of the Year, Welsh Client of the Year, Welsh Architecture Award and the RIBA Regional Architecture Award.
RIBA hailed the college as “a new civic landmark for Cardiff” and added that the foyer of the building had become “one of the most popular community spaces in Cardiff. The building represents remarkable value and has given a previously introspective academic institution a civic presence.”
Designed by BFLS Architects, the facilities include the Richard Burton Theatre, the Linbury Gallery, a café bar, rehearsal studios, and the Dora Stoutzker Hall.
Speaking of the awards, Hilary Boulding, the college's principal, said: “We’re thrilled to have won these four prestigious awards. They really are testimony to the creativity, dedication and hard work that has gone in to creating these new facilities.
"Part of our brief to the architect involved opening up the work and the resources of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama to a wider public, so that they could benefit directly from this national institution. We’re thrilled with the outcome. In the first year alone, more than 60,000 people have bought tickets or visited to experience life within this handsome building.”