Wales Millennium Centre: a new stage for the art of engineers Available to Purchase

The Wales Millennium Centre is a substantial new multipurpose cultural centre built over reclaimed land on the shores of Cardiff's new freshwater lake, formerly a tidal bay. Featuring a state-of-the-art 1852 seater auditorium and a diverse range of other smaller venues, the £106 million building opened to the public in November 2004 following a fast-track design-and-construction programme of less than three years. This paper tells the story of the building's continually evolving structural design, and how innovative solutions and value engineering helped keep the project within budget despite many unknown ground, noise and servicing issues.