Principality Stadium.

Pride of place in UK history.

The Principality Stadium (formally known as the Millenium Stadium) is one of the UK’s most well-known sporting venues. Since opening in 1999, it has hosted the Rugby World Cup, the Tsunami Relief concert, six FA Cup finals, high-profile music performances and many more events.

Set in the heart of Cardiff city on the site of the old Cardiff Arms Park, the project demanded a 75,000-seat capacity, world-class stadium.

Research rewards.

It was a fast-track build, with the immovable deadline of the 1999 Rugby World Cup. As such, it was one of our most challenging – and thrilling – projects. All works were carried out within in a three-year design and construction period. We set about defining exactly what the MEP and environmental parameters were for a world-class stadium such as this. Our team visited the most innovative facilities at the time – and researched technologies to understand how we could enhance the visitor experience for every type of event.

A UK first.

As the biggest ever stadium with a retractable roof – and the first in the UK – we needed to present a truly robust design. We deployed computational fluid dynamics to study the bowl environment in detail.
It also allowed us to demonstrate our proposed fire strategy for the closed roof environment, and our acoustic solution for quality sound while reducing noise to the surrounding area.

Ultimately, it was our vast experience of fast-track, collaborative projects like this – coupled with our local site knowledge and commitment to deliver – that made this once-in-a-lifetime project such a success.