Friary House, Cardiff

Colico Living needed to demonstrate how their 585-bed student accommodation tower would integrate with Cardiff’s historic city centre, particularly views from the iconic Cardiff Castle. Nicholas Pearson Associates was commissioned to create comprehensive verified views and marketing concept visuals to help planning committees and heritage officers understand the visual impact whilst supporting the scheme’s commercial viability.

The project transformed a 1970s office building and nightclub site on Greyfriars Road – named after a Franciscan friary built in the late 13th century – into contemporary purpose-built student accommodation with ground floor commercial units. Located within ten minutes’ walk of Cardiff University Union, the scheme required careful visual assessment from multiple heritage viewpoints including municipal buildings and Cardiff Castle itself.

Heritage Assessment Through Strategic Viewpoints

How to demonstrate heritage sensitivity for a tall student building in Cardiff’s historic heart was the central challenge. The question wasn’t just about visual impact, but proving that modern student housing could enhance rather than compromise the city’s medieval character.

Cardiff Castle represents one of the most significant viewpoint locations for heritage impact assessment in the city. The castle’s elevated position provides panoramic views across Cardiff’s historic core, making it crucial for assessing how new development integrates with the established townscape. We needed to show planners exactly how the proposed accommodation would appear from this protected vantage point.

Our Comprehensive Visualisation Strategy

Nicholas Pearson Associates developed a two-phase visual approach combining heritage assessment with marketing support. We began with nine verified view montages from strategic locations around the site, including views from municipal buildings and the critical Cardiff Castle perspective.

What made this project particularly challenging was gaining access to Cardiff Castle for photography. As a Cardiff Council-owned heritage asset open to paying visitors, we needed comprehensive authorisation including full risk assessment and public liability insurance documentation submitted to their film office. The tricky part was balancing our technical photography requirements with respect for visitor experience in this restricted historic location.

Following successful heritage documentation, we created four targeted marketing CGIs. Three images matched draft views from ECE Westworks, ensuring visual consistency with the architectural team’s design communication. We also developed a nighttime hero image to showcase the development’s evening character and relationship with Cardiff’s illuminated cityscape.

This dual approach meant planning officers received accurate heritage assessment visuals whilst the client gained compelling marketing materials using consistent visual standards and innovative CGI techniques.

Technical Excellence in Restricted Heritage Settings

Our verified view methodology required careful coordination with Cardiff Council’s heritage management protocols. We successfully obtained a series of photographs from the steps leading to Cardiff Castle Keep and from the Keep’s elevated position, capturing the precise viewpoints needed for comprehensive heritage assessment.

The technical process involved detailed site survey work to establish accurate camera positions and photographic baselines. From Cardiff Castle, we documented existing views across the city centre, providing the foundation for accurate verified view montages showing the proposed development within its urban context.

We prepared verified view montages complying with industry standards, ensuring each view accurately represented the relationship between the proposed student accommodation and Cardiff’s historic skyline. The methodology combined precision survey techniques with high-resolution photography to create technically robust visual evidence.

For the marketing CGIs, we employed innovative visualisation methods that could be applied to future projects. These techniques balanced photorealistic accuracy with compelling visual communication, demonstrating how technical visualisation skills can serve both planning and commercial objectives effectively.

Dual-Purpose Visual Communication Success

The verified views successfully demonstrated that the student accommodation would integrate sensitively with Cardiff’s heritage assets. Planning officers could assess the precise visual relationships between the proposed tower and protected views from Cardiff Castle, whilst understanding the development’s impact on the broader historic townscape.

Our heritage assessment visuals supported the planning committee’s decision-making process by providing clear, accurate evidence of visual relationships that would be difficult to assess through plans and elevations alone. The castle viewpoints particularly helped demonstrate scale and massing relationships within the medieval city’s complex urban grain.

The marketing CGIs served a different but equally important function, helping the client communicate the scheme’s commercial viability and design quality. The nighttime hero image captured the development’s contribution to Cardiff’s vibrant student quarter, whilst the coordinated views with ECE Westworks maintained design team consistency throughout the approval process.

Planning Success Through Visual Evidence

The comprehensive visual documentation contributed to successful planning permission for this significant student accommodation development. Our continued involvement from heritage assessment through marketing support demonstrated how visualisation services can address multiple project needs simultaneously.

Planning officers received the visual evidence needed for informed heritage impact assessment, whilst the client gained compelling marketing materials using cutting-edge CGI techniques. The project’s success validated our approach of combining rigorous technical standards with innovative visual communication methods.

This Cardiff project shows how strategic visualisation documentation can support complex urban development whilst respecting historic city centre constraints and commercial objectives.

Please contact us to discuss how our visualisation team can help you with your next project.