Main Building, St Fagans: National History Museum

Main Building, St Fagans: National History Museum

A large modernist museum building complex of striking geometric discipline, constructed in two main phases around an internal courtyard. The design employs reinforced concrete construction with light grey brick walling and white painted fascias to flat roofs, complemented by extensive glazing. The interplay between solid walls and glazed areas forms a key design principle throughout.

The south gallery block, built as the second phase, comprises 15 structural bays and functions as the main entrance range. At ground level, concrete pillars divide a glazed wall; above, projecting concrete beams support the cantilevered upper storey. The upper level consists of blank brick panels punctuated by a continuous narrow band of windows beneath the projecting flat roof. Behind this, a series of projecting beams support the roof and a set-back clerestory with continuous glazing and its own projecting roof. The present entrance is marked by a tent-like canopy added in 1990.

To the right stands the Costume Gallery's return wall, expressed as a full-height blank brick panel aligned with the south block's ground floor but stepped back from its cantilevered upper storey. The ground floor of this range was completed in the first phase but finished in its present form during the second phase.

Beyond this, the administrative block comprises a lower two-storey range from the first phase, with an added wing projecting forward to the right, constructed between 1974 and 1976. This wing features bands of ground-floor windows and a cantilevered upper storey with continuous window bands beneath a prominent flat roof. Similar fenestration arrangements appear on the long return elevation and rear. Beyond the administrative block lies a contemporary service courtyard, incorporating the original 1954 store and gallery building—a simple framed structure faced in brick with a shallow curved roof.

The internal courtyard is surrounded by the gallery block. The rear elevation of the south range mirrors its front elevation. To the east, the Costume Gallery range presents blank brickwork panels with a prominent flat roof. The west wing, which serves as the main site access, comprises stepped and interlocking blocks descending towards the rear exit. Each block features continuous glazing between concrete pillars supporting flat roofs. A ramp and UPVC conservatory, added in 1990, affect the rear elevation appearance.

The rear range, known as Oriel 1 (the Material Culture Gallery), formed part of the original gallery block and comprises blank brickwork panels with three narrow vertical windows and clerestory glazing divided by projecting joists supporting the roof. A further set-back clerestory follows similar detailing. The rear elevation of this range is substantially repeated but without windows. The courtyard itself is ramped between terraces, with a sunken cobbled area originally intended as a pool.

Set back to the left of the main block is the restaurant and shop area, completed in 1976 but extended on two floors to the west in 1989. The glazed ground floor is divided by concrete pillars surmounted by a deep projecting flat roof that extends forward from the original building line, causing the upper floor (the restaurant) to step back from the front elevation. This level comprises 7 bays of continuous glazing articulated by projecting beams supporting the prominent roof. The rear elevation lacks the upper-storey set-back and presents a simpler solid form lightened by continuous bands of ground-floor fenestration wrapping around both elevations, banded fenestration piercing solid brick panels above, and clerestory glazing to the kitchen area.

A service and toilet block projecting to the front of the main building line was added between 1990 and 1991, adopting a similar idiom with largely blank walling and a projecting flat roof.

The present entrance aligns with the west wing, forming the main axis providing access to the shop, restaurant, galleries, and open-air site. This axis steps up towards the rear, accommodating the sloping site, with a glazed wall onto the internal courtyard but dominated by a ramp providing access to the upper floors. Galleries are arranged as a continuous sequence around three sides of the courtyard on the upper level and on two sides at the lower level. The ground floor of the south range functions as café space, originally used as a display area for carts and wagons. The administrative block employs a spinal corridor plan.