More press coverage of Save Smallbrook Queensway!

zero carbon house — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:58:18 +0000

The campaign to save Smallbrook Queensway has been covered by The Birmingham Post and Private Eye.

The Birmingham Post has published a robustly argued piece by Mary Keating: “Democracy demolished as objections hit a brick wall.”

Mary, who represents Brutiful Birmingham, has exposed how the campaign to save Smallbrook Queensway has not even had the opportunity to present a counter-proposal to the plans to demolish the 60s Brutalist building. This is despite the counter-proposal being endorsed by the winners of the Stirling prize, a prestigious architectural award, and expert scrutiny of the carbon implications of the development.

Meanwhile, the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, is to meet the developers, Dooba Investments II Ltd, who are proposing the demolition of the heritage building to make way for a residential-led, mixed-use development of glass towers.

Download: Birmingham Post: Democracy demolished as objections hit a brick wall (JPEG)

Private Eye has also reported on the campaign. They say that the Save Smallbrook Queensway campaign has demonstrated that a profitable scheme for 450 homes could be achieved without trashing Birmingham’s history.

Download: Private Eye: Nooks and Corners (JPEG)

Sign our petition

Please add your name to our petition to Preserve Smallbrook Queensway’s 1960s style.

Previous media coverage of the campaign

Twentieth Century Society

Architects Journal

Building Design

Birmingham Live: Battle over brutalist buildings in Birmingham as open letter sent to council

Birmingham Live: Ringway Centre development will bring ‘bland and overbearing mass’ to Birmingham city centre

Save Smallbrook Ringway!

zero carbon house — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 18:30:57 +0000

Zero carbon house has teamed up with Brutiful Birmingham, The Modernist, and The Twentieth Century Society to advocate retrofit for a very special building.

The Ringway Centre, by James Roberts (1962), on Smallbrook Queensway is one of the few Brutalist buildings left in the City. Importantly it demonstrates the unique Birmingham Brutalist style developed here in the 1960s.

A planning application has been lodged which would demolish the entire building, and replace it with flats up to 55 stories high. The Twentieth Century Society is highlighting the national importance of the Ringway building. The Guardian describes it as “one of [Birmingham’s] most important buildings”, and by saving it “the city could become a model of creative post-war conservation”. At this time of climate emergency, it is widely-recognised best practice to retain and reuse our existing buildings, as the hidden “embodied carbon” in construction can be up to 75% of the complete carbon footprint. The environmental (carbon) cost of keeping the building and retrofitting to a low-energy standard, would likely be a small fraction of the demolition and energy-hungry proposal.

If you oppose the demolition of this building, and are concerned about architectural and urban design, heritage, and environmental & social sustainability, we would be really grateful if you could find a few minutes to object to the planning application that has been lodged. You have until 22 December 2022.

How you can help save Smallbrook Ringway

Write directly to Birmingham City Council at planningandregenerationenquiries@birmingham.gov.uk

The planning application: REF 2022/08496/PA

A template letter and supporting documents are below.

Make a comment about the application: Comment on planning application 2022/08496/PA

We will be using social media to spread the word so if you could retweet and repost that would be terrific.

Our hashtag for our campaign is #savesmallbrook. Please use it.

Media coverage of our campaign

The controversial planning application and our counter-proposals have already caused a stir both locally nationally, and our open letter has been signed by many leading national and local people.

Campaigns – zero carbon house