Culture

£17m outdoor swimming and sauna complex planned for historic docks

15 Sep 2026 4 minute read

Cardiff Bay’s Victorian dry docks set for £17m Nordic baths and sauna. Image: Nordic Urban

Nation Cymru staff

A Finnish developer is hoping to turn the listed Mount Stuart Graving Docks into a year-round outdoor bathing and sauna destination, the first of at least five the company intends to build in the UK and Ireland.

Finnish waterfront developer Nordic Urban has confirmed it will submit a planning application to Cardiff Council in October for Allas Pool Cardiff, a £17m year-round outdoor bathing and sauna complex in the Mount Stuart Graving Docks at Cardiff Bay.

Nordic Urban is a Finnish developer and operator of urban waterfront wellbeing destinations. Its Allas Pool concept combines year-round outdoor bathing and swimming, sauna, gastronomy, live music and events in central maritime city locations, and has established itself as a proven model for opening urban waterfronts to public use.

The first Allas Pool opened in Helsinki in 2017. The company has further projects under development in the Nordic region, the Baltics and the UK.

A pre-application consultation (PAC) on the proposals opened this week and feedback gathered during the PAC phase will be reviewed and considered as part of the planning application.

The scheme would bring the Grade II listed dry docks, disused for decades, back into public use as a 2,000 sq m complex built around a 25-metre heated outdoor swimming pool. Alongside it will sit hot and cold pools, four saunas, changing and relaxation facilities, a restaurant and cafe, and outdoor terraces looking out over the water.

The baths will be open to the public all year rather than run as a members’ club, and the terraces and the waterside walk around the dock will remain open to everyone without an admission charge, bringing a stretch of the Cardiff Bay dockside back into public use.

Nordic Urban holds an agreement with Cardiff Council for a long-term lease of the site, which will be completed once planning permission is in place. Construction is expected to take around two years from the point permission is granted.

The scheme brings together three specialist practices that have worked collaboratively through the concept stage. OOPEAA, the Finnish practice known for combining traditional wooden construction with contemporary architecture, led as concept architect.

Its design keeps the dock walls, steps and structures intact, working within them rather than over them, and conserves the maritime heritage of a site that has been empty since commercial shipbuilding left the bay.

GROSS.MAX, a UK-based landscape architecture practice, is landscape architect, while SPACE & PLACE, specialist Sports and Leisure Architects, will lead the delivery phase. Together, the three practices have shaped the concept, combining architectural, landscape and specialist leisure expertise.

Raoul Grünstein, CEO of Nordic Urban, said: “Cardiff Bay has one of the most striking industrial waterfronts anywhere in Britain, and these docks have stood empty for decades. Our plan keeps the dock and its structures intact and puts them back into everyday use for local people to enjoy.”

“Our aim is to play a role in revitalising the waterfront and create a development where people can swim, sit in a sauna, eat and meet by the water, open all year and open to everyone. We believe this will be a real asset to Cardiff for years to come.”

Allas Cardiff is based on the concept Nordic Urban created and established in central Helsinki, where the original Allas Pool Helsinki opened in 2017 and now draws around 800,000 visitors a year. It ranks among the Finnish capital’s most popular wellbeing and leisure destinations and has become a template for opening industrial waterfronts back up to the public.

The Cardiff building has been designed specifically for the heritage and the landscape of the bay rather than transplanted from Helsinki. Flexible indoor spaces will carry wellbeing, cultural and community activity through the year alongside the restaurant and cafe, following the pattern established in Helsinki, where live music, events and community programming keep the site busy well outside the summer months.

Cardiff is the first destination Nordic Urban intends to establish across the UK and Ireland, and the company has further projects in development in the Nordic region and the Baltics.

The pre-application consultation runs for 28 days and closes on 13 October 2026. Responses will be reported to Cardiff Council as part of the planning submission.

The pre-application consultation is available to view online here – www.allaspool-consultation.co.uk

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