We were exhibiting at the West Midlands Design Fair at Space2 a couple of weeks back. We had 2 stands – one with other RIBA members and architects to exhibit our current projects, but we also wanted to explore the idea of process, so our other stand was something of an experiment involving a huge aerial photograph of Birmingham city centre and some chunky marker pens.
We asked delegates to consider the future of Birmingham City Centre. We had downloaded as many current planning applications as we could from the planning portal, and superimposed them onto the plan. A workshop took place over the course of the evening and we created a collage exploring the impact of changes taking place in the city.
Most of the discussions that took place were centred around routes in and around of the city – the inner ring road being a particular bugbear. It was also felt that Eastside city park has problems with connectivity to the rest of the city – again, there are accessibility issues and no obvious route to the park.
Other comments were based around culture in the city – one delegate (naming no names, but this photo on the right is a dead giveaway) would like to see some of the council’s surface car parks developed into outdoor theatre / performance spaces. On that note, make sure you show your support via the Big Blank Canvas for Birmingham’s bid for the UK’s first City of Culture.