Elsewhere in the complex there is a 250-seat studio theatre, a 150-seat youth theatre, big rehearsal rooms, large rear and side stages to store and shuffle productions. There are even dormitories for a uniquely Welsh phenomenon, the youth movement known as the Urdd. The idea is that, just as Wales is stuffed with outdoor-pursuits centres, so this will be a cultural-pursuits centre. It would never happen in England, where singing aloud is something you call the police about.

The idea of overt nationalism in buildings is usually flawed, and the genesis of this one was undeniably a knee-jerk response to the perceived globalization of big-name architecture. Wales was getting its Assembly and it wanted control of its own cultural agenda too. But despite all the politicking, Adams has succeeded in producing a building that is distinctive and original, if not great. I don't immediately love it, though I am glad that it is there to strike a blow for eccentric architectural individualism and the virtues of solidity. With this, plus the foil of Rogers' much more ethereal Assembly fronting the sweet new lagoon of Cardiff Bay, a sense of place rather than desolation is at last starting to emerge. The trouble is, I still don't have a clear sense of quite what sort of place it is. Because there still don't seem to be many people there.

www.wmc.org.uk - follow the progress of the project.