Senedd, Cardiff

The Senedd, also known as the National Assembly building, houses the debating chamber and three committee rooms for the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff. The 5,308 square metres Senedd building was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 1 March 2006 and the total cost was £69.6 million. The Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Rogers won an international architectural design competition to design the building. It was designed to be sustainable with use of renewable technologies and be energy efficient.

The Senedd was constructed in two phases, the first in 2001 and the second from August 2003 until it was handed over to the National Assembly in February 2006. The building was nearly six times over budget and four years and 10 months late, compared to the original estimates of the project in 1997. Total costs rose due to unforeseen security measures after the September 11 attacks, and because the National Assembly did not have an independent cost appraisal of the project until December 2000, three years after the original estimate.