RIBA + VitrA Talk: Build, Regenerate, Transform: A future vision for Birmingham

How do you redesign complex sites or regenerate neglected urban spaces? How can a city’s council drive growth and renewal? How can you create architectural landmarks that become genuine catalysts for urban regeneration?

Birmingham is an architecturally diverse city, a blend of the old and the new, an everchanging landscape of architectural innovation. Faced with the urgent challenges of climate change, increasing economic disparity, and wider societal change as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the city is looking to imagine and implement creative solutions. Architects, designers and developers are working across the region, to revisualise their city, and equip its residents, workers and visitors with a greater connected and more conscious Birmingham.

This talk will explore these questions and look at the changing face of Birmingham, mapping the city through key case studies including the Smithfield Market regeneration scheme, and the Paradise masterplan project. Hear more about how Birmingham City Council intends to reshape this city in their Future City Plan, one which could create a fairer, greener and more inclusive urban landscape. Our panel will not only explore key architectural projects in the region, but also address more broadly what it means to regenerate a city, and how the current economic, societal and environmental climate has presented challenges to enabling real change.

Speakers:

Dav Bansal, Partner, Glenn Howells Architects

David Kohn, Founding Director, David Kohn Architects

Anna Parker, Director, Intervention Architecture

Alexandra Slatter, Associate, Associated Architects

Chair: Paul Kitson, Strategic Director – Place, Prosperity and Sustainability, Birmingham City Council

Sign up for a ticket here.

This event is part of a series of events for the RIBA + VitrA Partnership.