Digbeth Masterplan, Birmingham.

Client: Oval

With Studio Egret West

[2019-20]

My involvement consisted of creative research into Digbeth and embedding this as a set of design principles into the Masterplan.

Principle 1 - Inspired by a Rich Industrial.. and ‘Waterish and Bucolic’ Past- aimed to capture the industrial process and materiality, but balance this with the bucolic origins of Digbeth. “It is a place of industry, ..[that] can be traced back two or three centuries through metal working and small-scale factories to the long-lost industries powered by water. People may also learn that this was an area of medieval meadows and deer parks, grassy and treed, green not grey, the colours natural not painted.” [Digbeth Historic Document BCC]

Principle 2- Improvised and Serendipitous Place-Making, aimed to capture temporary spatial interventions that recycle industrial materials, notions and forms to inform permanent fixtures and usages.

Principle 3 - A Ruderal Nature Reserve of Experimental Greenspaces, aimed to capture the natural and indigenous colonising plants of industrial sites of the area as opportunities to create ‘terrain vague’ greenspaces that are Digbeth -specific.

Principle 4 - Revealing Water as a Positive Creative Opportunity, aimed to reinterpret Digbeth’s relationship with the River Rea and water management into an accessible , positive, productive and experiential landscape.

Principle 5. A Heriarchy of Routes Reinforced by Embedded Artist lighting, Sound and Graffitti Strategy, aimed to capture all artist activity, democratically, to inform new wayfinding strategies; change the soundscape of Digbeth; and inform lighting.