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The National Assembly for Wales needed a brand new building and a visible symbol of the new-look principality. The scheme, on a brownfield site in Cardiff, has three levels with a public café and gallery overlooking a debating chamber and committee rooms.
As a public building, certainty over cost was an important consideration, but so too was the ability to provide a robust and sustainable building for Wales with a minimum 100 year life.
Environmental elements include the selection of timber, slate and stone, along with low energy systems which aim to halve energy usage. Twenty seven 100m deep boreholes in the ground help with cooling and heating through earth heat exchangers. This, coupled with a rotating wind cowl which ventilates the chamber via a funnel hanging from the roof, enabled the building to achieve Wales' highest ever BREEAM environmental rating.
An iconic building, capable of standing up both to the political debates inside and Cardiff's challenging marine environment outside, was delivered on time and to budget.
The judges said: 'This significant landmark was achieved after a troubled early gestation, and has achieved high levels of client satisfaction and public acclaim, not least for its environmental attributes.'