Plans for a new £1.5m public square in Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter have been submitted to the City Council.
Designed by Capita Lovejoy – Capita Symonds’ land planning division – the ‘Golden Square’ development will be at the heart of the city’s Jewellery Quarter which is home to more than 1500 businesses, 200 listed buildings, and produces over 40% of all the jewellery manufactured in the UK every year.
Capita Lovejoy is leading a design team which includes architects Bryant Priest Newman; public artists David Patten and Jenny Peet; engineers Ramboll; lighting designers Light Bureau; and digital media consultants Substrakt.
The revamp is one of the first new projects in Birmingham City Council’s ‘Big City Plan’ which will see the city centre transformed over the next few years. The ‘Golden Square’ plans feature a concept whereby a series of “exposed seams” run like needles on a compass out towards the district’s traditional material sources and global trading partners such as the USA, Australia and South Africa. These highly reflective alignments shape the available space, manage the topography, and accommodate seating, lighting and fountains.
Suggested by the original street pattern, the new square is subdivided into three key spaces – the plaza, the orchard and the promenade. Taken together, these three spaces provide an essential place in the ‘daily round’ for existing and emerging local communities.
Already a designated conservation area, the Quarter is currently bidding for World Heritage status and has been described by English Heritage as a unique historic environment with few, if any, parallels in Europe.
Andy Williams, Managing Director of Capita Lovejoy’s Birmingham office said: “The Golden Square will be a real focal point for the Quarter – a place to hang out, to meet; to energise and to rest. It will be a space to hold events and markets, to make speeches and to exhibit – a place to take a photo.”
Capita Lovejoy was chosen to design the scheme after its proposals won an international design competition, managed by Turner & Townsend, in September last year.
Bruce McAra, Managing Director of Turner & Townsend said: “We have been working with the Council in all areas of strategy and planning for the Big City Plan and the projects stemming from the initiative. We saw some incredible designs for the Golden Square when we managed the international design competition and so it’s incredibly exciting to be working with the Council and Capita Lovejoy in making that winning vision a reality for the Jewellery Quarter.”
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About Capita Symonds
Capita Symonds is one of the UK's largest and most diverse multidisciplinary consultancies operating in the building design, civil engineering, environment, management and transport sectors. With over 4,500 staff in over 60 UK and international offices we offer an unrivalled scope of services and a unique blend of professional and technical skills to schemes of all types and complexities.
For further information, please contact –
Karl Blockwell, Communications Manager, Capita Symonds
Karl.blockwell@capita.co.uk
T: 02920-333777
M: 07825-532737