https://zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk/save-smallbrook/ Tue, 14 Nov 2023 21:57:25 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk/save-smallbrook/#comment-8447 Tue, 14 Nov 2023 21:57:25 +0000 https://zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk/?p=5294#comment-8447 Similar sweeping facade outside Manchester Piccadilly station. Although not a great admirer of most modern buildings, I believe Smallbrook Ringway is quite a fine example (and different) of modern architecture.

]]> https://zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk/save-smallbrook/#comment-8439 Thu, 09 Nov 2023 14:17:50 +0000 https://zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk/?p=5294#comment-8439 Thank you Nicholas. That is really well put. We agree – of course!

]]> https://zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk/save-smallbrook/#comment-8438 Thu, 09 Nov 2023 11:27:59 +0000 https://zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk/?p=5294#comment-8438 Too many Brutalist buildings in Brum have been butchered. Instead of going with the revisionist flow, we need to assert our city’s very special place in the vanguard of Modernist building and explain why Brutal is beautiful and not the eyesore it is often claimed to be. For example, I don’t think many people understand Roberts’ vision for the Sentinels, the Ringway and the Rotunda- I didn’t until very recently. Also, people should be aware that many Brutalist/Modernist projects have been allowed to fail for lack of funding. If Paradise Circus had been properly developed, with the concrete meeting greenery, it could have become our Barbican. As more people opt for living in the city centre, it’s essential we don’t allow Birmingham’s obsession with moving ‘forward’ to be seen as a green light to the bulldozers. I was born in Derby; a lot of the citizens there deeply regret the eradication of historical sites in that city. I don’t want that to happen to my adopted city of Birmingham.

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