ECOND CITY2

CONTENTS

3 4 5 6Illustration The Bull Ring

13 14 15 16 17 18The Library

1 2Hotel La Tour

Millenium Point Illustration

Quotes Page26 27

Interior

7 8 9 10The Custard Factory

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19 20 21 22 23 24The Mailbox The Cube

INSAIllustration

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A lot of people have mixed opinions about The Bullring but no one can deny that it is Birmingham’s most iconic piece of architecture. As soon as you see the silver discs, you know you’re in the centre of the city. When you’re shop-ping in Selfridges or eating your Nando’s, do you ever wonder what was there be-fore? Or what did it used to be like?

The mid 50’s meant that the ar-chitecture was getting boring around the city so, the Council chose John Laing’s proposal for the re-development of The

Bull Ring because of the substantial materials he had planned to use. The shops started to close down in 1955 and plans were designed by James A. Roberts. Construc-tion of the new building was nearly completed in 1964. It had the traditional market stalls outside, which stood by St. Martins Church, which they had done since the 12th Century. It also had the indoor shops too, which the public thought was the height of mo-dernity at the time. Soon after, the building was disregarded and contributed towards the name, “concrete jungle”. This

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THE BULL RING

THE BULL RINGis because of the brutalist ar-chitecture that became popu-lar around the city which basi-cally meant that every building just looked dull! The materials that were used meant the buildings started to become weathered and looked run down. No wonder the council decided to re-invent it again in the 21st Century! On Septem-ber 4th 2003 The new £500 million ‘Bullring’ opened to the public, creating 8,000 new jobs and became one of the most recogniseable places to shop! The architectural firm, Benoy, who have worked on things like the Westfield

shopping centre, designed the new look which re-invented Birmingham! The curves in the buildings and the colours used inside and out definately made it more appealing than the old one. Also, the fact that you can access the different centres underground is a unique con-cept and appealed to many shoppers! Future Systems were the architects who creat-ed the 15,000 aluminium disc building, which is known for its architectural excellence. This is one of the most controversial buildings in Birmingham, it’s like marmite... You either love it or hate it!

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5Hotel La Tour, Albert Street

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The Cathedral Church of Saint Philip

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Draped in a rich cultural his-tory, Birmingham is owed a debt of gratitude by many of its finest exports, but is hum-ble custard something that springs to mind when you pic-ture the city of Birmingham? We thought not. Perhaps it doesn’t take a genius to guess the original use of Digbeth’s Custard Factory, a now vibrant boiling pot of colour and the arts, but there is an impor-tant past buried beneath its eccentric facade. Bird’s Cus-tard Powder is a brand we all know, not one that

this was the heart of Sir Alfred Bird’s company,consisting of a thousand-strong work force pumping out the unique cus-tard mix and newly invented baking powder around the world, it was even provided to our troops in World War One! By 1964 Bird’s had decided to up-sticks and move to Ban-bury, leaving the factory in Dig-beth to spiral into dereliction, it remained this way until 1992 when redevelopment began under Glenn Howell’s archi-tects. With £2.4 millionspounds of funding from both

we all love I’m sure, but it is one of the UK’s many great global exports. Once perhaps ambitiously described as hav-ing ‘helped create the British Empire’, the exhilarating and adrenaline pumping topic of egg-free custard is something that has its roots firmly on our doorstep. The main building of what we now know as the Custard Factory, the Victori-an-influenced terracotta front-ed Devonshire House, was constructed over 100 years ago by architectural firm ‘Hamblins’. For 50 years

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THE CUSTARD FACTORY

private investors as well as a grant from the city worth £800,000, redevelopment of Scott House began; this was the first stage of the transfor-mation and involved taking the docking bay and its surround-ing buildings and changing them into a small lake with 200 accompanying work-shop spaces. This section in particular is well worth a visit today with several galleries, clothing shops and most importantly, The Medicine Bar. The second stage of the regeneration was completed

in 2002 and formed the now iconic face of the Custard Fac-tory, Gibb Street. Formed of a series of shops, restaurants and studio spaces, all of which are contained within vibrant, green, pink, yellow and blue buildings. Whether you find the architecture on Gibb Street garish and horrific or beautiful and dynamic, they truly are a snapshot of the quirky artists and practitioners that make the Custard Factory the pulsating centre for culture and media that it is today. Being a short walk outside of the city centre

it is easy to imagine that this eccentric and curious site would slip under the shadow of Selfridges and the Mailbox to name but a few, however the Custard Factory’s repu-tation continues to grow and with further development being recently completed its future, much like its buildings, looks very bright, or garish, whatever floats your boat.

THE CUSTARD FACTORY

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INSAINSA’s love for street art began at The Custard Factory when they took part in one of the events there. Their work is on one of the walls and shows the vibrant and cultured feel of the building.

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14Millenium Point car park, Jennens Road

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The new Library of Birming-ham has been described as ambitious, would you agree? Designed by the international architecture operating office named Mecanoo, a fascinating design yet the building has received mixed reviews. Some will say it is abstract, pioneer-ing even. Some may look the other way and say that the building is ugly and untradi-tional. However once learning about the the new design and understanding its historical influences, then the building might not seem so bad to look at after all.

The former library opened in the 1974. Designed by architect John Madin who contributed significantly to Birmingham’s post-war archi-tectural development. The old building can be describe as pure concrete as it followed the collective architecture that was produced after World War 2, Madin wanted to construct stability and strength for Bir-mingham in concrete form. Yet the building received negative reactions, the public disliked it despite Madin’s attempt to give Birmingham its structure it desperately needed.

AMBITIOUS LIBRARY

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Design & ArchitectsDesigned by Dutch Architects Mecanoo, the new building will feature an large entrance and foyer to welcome its ambitious estimate of 10,000 visitors per day. A flexible studio theatre; indoor and outdoor public levels, but what makes the Library of Birmingham the library in the entire country is its ‘Golden Box’. The ‘Golden Box’ is a state-of-the-art se-cure archive storage. Within the box is the city’s interna-tional collection of rare books, photography, valuable unique items, and much more for the public to discover.

But the most captivating el-ement is the intricate metal pattern that wraps around the building. Is it beautiful? Or is it ugly? It is a struggle to under-stand why they have created an overgrowing pattern caging the building. However what the pattern does, is that it strongly represent old Birmingham at its best. The pattern was influ-enced by the tunnels, canals and viaducts which fueled Birmingham’s industrial growth during the 18th century. There-fore you must praise Mecanoo for incorporating history within its design.

Design & ArchitectsLets talk about the design architects Mecanoo. It is an international operating office with a highly creative multi-dis-ciplinary staff founded by Prof. ir. Francine M.J. Hou-ben. Complexity, contrast and composition is the basis of Mecanoo’s architecture. Each design considers its cultural setting, place and time, their purpose is to bring every sep-arate element together in one single concept. This is reflect-ed on Library of Birmingham, with its three levels of geomet-ric shapes contrasting with the gold cylinder on top.

AMBITIOUS LIBRARY

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Latour Hotel, Hyatt Hotel, Town hall

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20The Cube, Wharfside Street

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The fact that is in a unique set-ting, right on the canal, makes it more appealing for some be-cause of the fact it is different from other multi use buildings in the city. When you’re walking around it or inside it, you don’t think about the history that the place holds! In 1970, R.H. Ousman joined with the archi-tect H.A.E Giddings and cre-ated the most important and largest building in Birmingham.

Even if it was quite an unap-pealing building to look at,The Royal Mail sorting office was the biggest in the UK! I know it doesn’t sound too impressive but it took up 20 acres of land and there was even a tunnel which ran under the ground to transport the letters back and forth to New Street station. A 40ft steel frame and other ma-

terials like pre-cast concrete for the floor and cast glass troughs on the outside made up the building. It’s weird to think about how so much has changed since the 70’s. Now the area is used for totally different things rather than just work such as, socialising or even living. Whilst you’re there having a beer or a coffee, there was once someone slaving away where you may be sat!

The re-development is all thanks to Alan Chatham who also worked on bringing Brin-dley Place to life. When the sorting office went up for sale in 1997, he had his eyes on it straight away and collaborated with Mark Billingham to carry on changing the look of the city. They bought it for £4 mil-lion in ‘98 and it also opened

that year. It changed the whole surroundings as it be-came one of the higher class places to go eat and drink. There are also apartments there now that look over the canal which adds to the high-er class status as you need quite a bit of money to buy one! The building itself today is full of colour and life, which is the style of the architect i suppose.

The designer, Ken Shuttle-worth of the architects ‘MAKE’ seized the opportunity to create something complete-ly different! It fits in with the multi use theme of the Mail-box and stands out above all of it’s surroundings. The cube is one of the most appealing buildings to look at in the city.

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THE MAILBOX

23The Old Pavillion

24Millenium PointThe Old Pavillion

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architecture in birmingham is developing

IT IS A wORkIng pROgReSS

The Bull Ring whether people like it or not is the most iconic building in Birm

ingham

The thing that interests me about architecture is the design. When looking at a building, I do not immediately think ‘oh it looks nice.’ A great archi-tectural should not only look strong but the design should immediately trigger questions forexample why have they chose that col-our? or why have t-hey chose that typeof material? this mo-ment is mixed. The architecture in Birmingham at this moment is mixed. There is the old and then there is the new. Buildings are becoming more sleek, more mod-ern. The designs are intriguing and each unique.

t h o u g h t w i t h i n t h e s m a l l e s t o f d e t a i l s

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architecture in birmingham is developing

IT IS A wORkIng pROgReSSThe cOnTRAST BeTw

een The TwO IS STROng

I like the way some buildings are built differently, some buildings can make you think how it has been built. Its really good, compared to the area where I’m from, Bir-mingham’s architecture has a more interesting view to it. It is more modern. The Bull Ring is different to ev-ery other building, it has a more interesting structure to it, I like the shape of it, the circles are unique, its more abstract compared to your typical building you would look. I like the difference between old buildings and modern buildings, and the way that new modern buildings reflect on modern design. Its a working prog-ress. uncoordinated. It is trying to move to a futuristic modern city of architecture, however some buildings and areas are still traditional. The contrast between the two is strong. Therefore some buildings look quite out of place. I think once all the redevelopment is done, the main city centre will look very sleek and modern. The most iconic building in Birmingham is the Bull Ring whether people like it or not you cannot argue with that.