An AT event, delivered in partnership with Schüco UK and hosted by Howells, explored Birmingham’s ambitious vision for sustainable growth and a zero carbon future as set out in its Our Future City Plan: Central Birmingham 2040 framework.
Architecture Today’s recent one-day event, held in partnership with Schüco UK and hosted by Howells at its Birmingham office, took a deep dive into the city’s zero carbon future as laid out in its ambitious Our Future City Plan: Central Birmingham 2040 framework. Published by Birmingham City Council (BCC), The 190-page document provides a route map for sustainable living and working, encompassing community, connectivity, housing, and plans for investment and jobs. The event, which was chaired by AT editor Isabel Allen, comprised presentations by a diverse range of speakers on key aspects of the framework, together with two walking tours around a selection of prime OFCP sites, including Digbeth, the Creative Quarter, and Port Loop.
Schüco Sales Director Dan Gleeson began the morning session by informing delegates that Schüco had a vested interest in Birmingham and its future, and had already completed a number of major projects in the city. He observed that there was a synergy between the manufacturer and the OFCP framework in respect of the company’s recently launched Carbon Control initiative, which is aimed at reducing both operational carbon in buildings and embodied carbon in the supply chain.
Speakers (left to right): Adam Willetts, Dan Gleeson, Dav Bansal, Eloise McGregor, Glenn Howells, James Watts, Brandon Fey, Philip Nell, Sara Wajid, Richard Billingham, Simon Delahunty-Forrest, Selina Mason, Matthew Hill, and Simon Marks.
Gleeson handed over to Glenn Howells, Founder of Howells, who set the current 2040 framework in the context of other key city-wide redevelopment strategies – not least the Highbury Initiative (1988), which imagined the city’s post-industrial future, and the Big City Plan (2010), which sought to undo poor urban planning and development from the 1960s and 70s. He said that Birmingham currently had more capacity for new homes and sustainable growth than any other UK city due to its lack of density, and that the overall aim was to make the city denser, greener and healthier. Howells was highly optimistic about the future, saying that there was the necessary space and opportunity to create fantastic city districts over the next 15 years.
Next up was Philip Nell, Director of Property & Investment at Birmingham City Council (BCC), who explored the ambitious scope of the OFCP framework. Central to this is the provision of 35,000 new homes, 200 kilometres of active travel routes, an 80 per cent increase in employment capacity, and a 30 per cent increase in green spaces. He underlined the importance of ‘levelling up’ with regards to the more deprived areas of Birmingham and the desire to drive growth outwards from the city core. Nell also spoke about the need to ‘broaden the conversation’ around social and affordable housing, as well as the necessity to deliver residential projects quickly and efficiently by working with a range of different partners. In Nell’s opinion success would be dependent on setting defined objectives, communicating clearly with the wider city, and being open and transparent about the adopted strategy. “It’s not going to be easy,” he said candidly, “but we are going to give it our best shot.”
Arcadis’ Simon Marks discusses the delivery of the OFCP framework.
Dav Bansal, Partner at Howells, began by exploring the city’s fluctuating density from the 1850s to the present day. “Birmingham has the potential to drastically increase its density,” he explained. “It’s astonishingly low – up to four time less dense than city centres like Barcelona – but there’s a chance for growth here as our population continues to increase.” Crucially, large-scale residential, civic, and transport expansion will leave the city’s green belt untouched, with a green city wall – the Loop Park – replacing its existing ‘concrete collar’ of ring roads.
Sustainable neighbourhood generation would be driven by increasing density (from 7,000 to 13,000 pp/km2 in the city core), greening the city (from 15 per cent to 30 per cent), extending active travel routes (from 100 to 200 km), and the creation of a safe and attractive public realm, said the architect. Bansal then showcased some of the key projects aimed at revitalising Birmingham’s neighbourhood centres, including Newtown and Hockley, through investment in retail, leisure, housing, and community facilities. “As a leading international city we’ve got to be inclusive, resilient, creative and connected,” he concluded.
Sketch by Howells showing the proposed Rea Valley Urban Quarter.
Next up was a quintet of expert speakers from multidisciplinary company Arcadis. “The OFCP is live, it’s real, it’s happening, ” enthused City Executive for the Midlands Simon Marks, before cautioning that the sheer scale of the framework, which covers 1,800 hectares, and includes the redevelopment of five inner-city neighbourhoods (CityHeart, Central North, Central East, Central South and Central West), would require robust programme and project management, as well as inspired governance and stakeholder engagement to keep it on track.
Matthew Hill, Director and Head of Development Management and Economic Advisory, also expressed the need for the masterplan to be deliverable, and mapped out the key stages required to achieve this, including client and design workshops, technical assessments, stakeholder engagement, critical reviews, and delivery plans. He emphasised the importance of maintaining checks and balances to ensure that the project remained ‘on the right track’ with the client team. The final part of Hill’s presentation introduced Birmingham Innovation Zone: the first phase of the masterplan, which began last year, is worth £1bn, and is intended serve as a catalyst for the wider regeneration of east Birmingham.
A new street park will become the focus for the Park Birmingham development in the city centre (CGI: Howells)
Eloise McGregor and Brandon Fey, respective Associate Technical Director and Technical Director, spoke about the plans to make Birmingham a leading biophilic city through significant investment in green space and infrastructure. Among the main aims of the initiative are increased access to nature, reduced flood risk, improved climate resilience, and greater connectivity and community involvement. McGregor explained that after identifying biophilic interventions for each city ward, it was decided that Digbeth should be the first to benefit on account of it being one of the most deprived areas with the least amount of green space. Digbeth Street Park will therefore spearhead Birmingham’s new nature-first approach to regeneration.
Selina Mason, Director of Masterplanning & Strategic Design at Lendlease, gave a fascinating insight into the history of and redevelopment plans for Birmingham’s Smithfield district. The £2bn masterplan for the currently empty 17-hectare brownfield site at the heart of this centrally-located neighbourhood includes more than 4,000 new homes, and 180,000-square-metres of office space, as well as leisure, cultural and community facilities. Mason highlighted the scheme’s key design moves comprising public squares and event spaces, together with markets and a park – all connected by a generous pedestrian boulevard. She also spoke about the desire to create a lively 24-hour city, where late night revellers and early morning market traders intersect as the character and programme of places and spaces change depending on the time of day.
Lendlease’s Selina Mason discussed the Smithfield masterplan, which includes housing, commercial, leisure and major new civic spaces.
Simon Delahunty-Forrest, Assistant Director Development (Places, Prosperity, & Sustainability Directorate) at Birmingham City Council, began the afternoon session by exploring key themes of community, culture and job creation under the OFCP. Describing Birmingham as a ‘city of layers’ he spoke passionately about the importance of embedding art and culture into its fabric, as well as building on the sporting legacy of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. “This will ensure people come to the city – and stay,” he said. When asked what success might look like, Delahunty-Forrest cautioned that the masterplan was not about success per se, it was about avoiding failure. “If the city looks the same today as it does in five, ten or 15-years-time, then we will have failed,” he said. “We have to celebrate our creativity, diversity, placemaking, and opportunities.”
The event included two walking tours of key sites within the OFCP framework.
Adam Willets, Associate Director for Development at Urban Splash, gave an in-depth presentation on Birmingham’s Port Loop scheme, which has brought design-led homes to the city fringe. Planned around shared gardens and outside spaces, phase one of the ‘back-to-basics’ development comprises mews-style modular and traditionally-built houses – designed by shedkm and Howells respectively – located on a former industrial site. “We wanted green streets not mean streets,” explained Willets, before revealing the shocking statistic that 75 per cent of UK children currently spend less time outside than prison inmates! Bringing the presentation up to date, he discussed Port Loop’s first apartment building, which is currently on site and is inspired by the design of traditional mansion houses found in London and Amsterdam.
Sara Wajid, Co-CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust, gave a passionate talk about the need to preserve and grow the arts in Birmingham.
Sara Wajid, Co-CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust, explained how the arts were struggling in Birmingham due in part to budgetary cuts and the long-term closure of the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. “Let’s not muck about,” she said. “This is a serious time for the city. It’s not easy to be a director in the arts sector, and I would not be one of the only Asian arts directors in the UK if I didn’t go to museums in London as a kid. We need others to have that opportunity here.”
Wajid felt that money might be better spent preserving Birmingham’s dilapidated historic buildings, rather than investing in hugely expensive capital projects. “It’s not sexy, but it would conserve an incredibly rich cultural heritage for the people of Birmingham,” she said. Wajid also underlined the city’s potential for artistic and cultural growth. “In Birmingham we see an incredibly rich mix of cultures, and also a city which is flat enough and hungry enough to take artistic experiment and radical bold steps in a way that very few other places around the country are able to do at this moment.”
Howells’ Dav Bansal showcases the Port Loop residential development as part of the afternoon walking tour.
Richard Billingham, Chief Operating Officer at Aston University, explored the future of the education sector in Birmingham and how investment in education, skills and technology can act as a powerful catalyst for change. Central to this is Birmingham Innovation Quarter (B-IQ), a new world-leading innovation district combining universities, global businesses, start-ups and learners. Led by a Triple Helix partnership model comprising Aston University, Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Combined Authority, and Bruntwood Scitech, B-IQ’s is set to commercialise and embed Industry 4.0 technologies and processes in business of all sizes and across all sectors, said Billingham.
The event concluded with an informal Q&A session at Arup’s new Birmingham office in the Paradise quarter.
The final presentation of the day was by James Watts, Birmingham Office Leader and Director, Midlands Property Team, at Arup. He discussed the practice’s recent regional move from Solihull to Birmingham, which has been driven in part by an attitude shift among graduate employees, who – unlike their forebears – are no longer interested in living in the suburbs, preferring instead to occupy city centres, such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Watts said that the decision was also part of a wider strategic plan to relocate all the company’s offices to city centres as a way of better engaging with today’s global challenges. Furthermore, Birmingham provided improved connectivity with Arup’s colleagues and partners working in different parts of the country.
Central to the success of the move has been considered and supportive staff engagement, as well as careful analysis of the building type needed and its location within the city, explained Watts. For the latter, Arup chose the centrally-located Paradise development on which it has worked for more than a decade. Occupying three floors of a 13-storey building, Arup’s new ‘city campus’ is designed to form a strong connection with its site and the local community through engagement activities and events – some of which have already taken place. “Paradise has helped to redefine what a regional workplace can look like,” concluded Watts. “It’s given Birmingham something that it can be very proud of and will act as a beacon for further investment.”
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