Scroll down to see details of some of our past events...
Talking Cities: Retrofitting old cities - 15th July
Peter Head from Arup presented an approach to transform a city like Birmingham by 2050, working with neighbourhoods and communities. He outlined delivery models and sources of finance and the possible benefits in terms of creating long term jobs and improving health and well being. He also emphasised the need for leadership, planning and good management practices. Catch up with the event by replaying the live blog below.
Celebrating St Luke's and the Willows - 15th July
A celebration of the achievements of pupils and staff from Wolverhampton's newest award winning primary schools. Over twenty creative practitioners have worked alongside staff, pupils and families to compliment and extend the ideas developed with Architype, the architects for both schools. Their approach has helped create two award winning schools in the city.
Workshops for teachers in the West Midlands - 19th July 2010
Engaging Places is running two free special half-day CPD workshops at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. The workshops will illustrate through best practice examples and practical activity how your local area coan be used to teach andy subject and every age; and how working with cultural learning providers can best enhance teacking and learning. The workshops are being run in conjunction with CABE, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Urban Vision North Staffordshire and MADE Date: Workshop A 09.30 - 12.30, Workshop B 13.30 - 16.30 More details visit the Engaging Places website.
Lessons to Take-Away - 30th June 2010
Do places make you fat? Can fast food be healthy? How far can increased obesity be attributed to diet or sedentary lifestyle? How can the planning and design of the built environment influence how and what we eat when we're on the move? This conference considered the quality of life impacts of the increasing availability of fast food. It connected the latest policies and thinking in health, education, planning and design.
Speakers included: Professor Peter Dolton, Dr John Middleton, Jenny Morris, Shifa Mustafa, Toni Smith, John Vincent, Professor Jack Winkler. Presentations from the event will be available here at the end of July.
Talking Cities: Delivering Quality Cities
This lunchtime lecture focused on how towns and cities in Australia and New Zealand are resolving urban design issues with lessons for the UK. Rod Duncan is a senior planner from the state of Victoria, Australia. He is one of the team behind Bendigo, Australia’s first ‘Child Friendly City’ which is pioneering a new shared spaces approach to streets. Rod was visiting the UK in June and used his visit as an opportunity to meet with West Midlands planners, architects and urban designers.
Talking Cities: Quality streets are for sharing
In a lively discussion Phil Jones, Phil Jones Associates, talked about sharing streets between the different users. The more streets are shared the more co-operative they become. A shared space does not always mean a shared surface.With examples from the UK and abroad Phil's lecture concluded that: streets are spaces not just transport infrastructure. We need to find ways of living with the car and not just being dominated by it. Less segregated streets are the key, so that people can make their own choices. You can read the full blog below:
Talking Cities: Learning Cities
On 15th April, John Worthington (Chair of CABE’s Building Futures and co-founder of DEGW), gave a lecture based on the role of a city as a learning environment. John's lecture focussed on the idea that cities are changing from centres to networks of places. Cities are now a series of places interconnected, and he reminded us that learning goes on outside of formal learning environments. "Living is learning" and by making "place" a centre of purpose, it naturally encourages learning.
Relating these ideas to Architecture and Urban Design, John stressed that Architects don't design spaces, they make memorable places. They can build neighbourhoods, but it takes a long time to make a community. He talked about a shift from community consultation to "co-production", and the interative process of thinking through design, which he described as "the meaningful and elegant allocation of resources". John's presentation is available here. You can also read the live blog for the event here.
Talking Cities: Happy Cities - Stitching the Disconnections
On 11th March, Irena Bauman of Bauman Lyons Architects spoke of her not-yet published research about communities living less than a mile from Leeds city centre, yet disconnected from its bright lights by income, aspiration and a ring road. She spoke with passion about the opportunity to use the under-utilised skills, social networks, land and property of the people and estates just beyond the iconic buildings. Read the full summary of Irena's lecture here.
Sense of Place: Is the Masterplan Dead? 12th February 2010
This event showed how Masterplanners and regeneration professionals have worked with communities to create a sense of place. The event focused on examples in the West Midlands, In particular Urban Living's Sense of Place project.
The keynote speaker was Professor Nabeel Hamdi, Emeritus Professor Oxford Brookes University and author of 'Small Change' and the forthcoming 'The Placemaker's Guide to Building Community'.
MADE was live-blogging from this very popular event:
Building Schools for the Future tour. 13th November 2009
MADE organised a tour of strikingly-designed buildings. The packed agenda allowed delegates to explore the value of engaging students in the design process.
The Art of Location. 6th November 2009
A one-day symposium, hosted by Meadow Arts, discussed the role of location in contemporary visual art practice.
Speakers included artists Ivan & Heather Morison, Mariele Neudecker, Clare Woods, Cornford & Cross, Nathaniel Pitt, Yoke & Zoom and academics Steve Hanson and Lee Hassall
A Quantum Leap:How public art and culture adds value to regeneration - 8 October 2009
Featuring the largest new piece of public art in the region, this event explored how public art and culture can regenerate small towns as well as big cities. The event was held at the Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury.
Majestic Yarns - 18 Aug to 19 September 2009
To celebrate the heritage of Croom Park, a National Trust property near Worcester, Patricia Dixon unveiled her new textile-based artwork. Part of an Arts Council-funded audience development project with MADE, Pat let workshops with community groups and visitors inspired by the site's rich landscape heritage.
Planning for a Healther Region - 14 September
A free learning event exploring the links between the health and planning profession, co-ordinated by the regional healthy environments group (which includes MADE) and Government Office West Midlands, this event was held at BVSC, Birmingham.
Seeing the Bigger Picture
One day International Symposium in Central Birmingham: 7 April 2009 Speakers included: Klaus Bondam, Robert Camlin, Maguelonne Déjeant-Pons, Adriaan Geuze, Kevin Logan, Frits Palmbloom and Oliver Schulze
Seeing The Bigger Picture was a symposium which presented recent ground- breaking approaches in European spatial planning. The day provided an exceptional opportunity for decision makers and practitioners to discussed the quality of life benefits of adopting a holistic and conceptual approach to landscape infrastructure in masterplanning and regeneration.
Seeing the Bigger Picture was curated by Professors Kathryn Moore and Tom Jefferies and was organised jointly by Birmingham City University School of Architecture and MADE, the regional Architecture Centre in the West Midlands. With financial support from Birmingham City Council via the Big City Plan.
The symposium was designed for senior decision makers and practitioners from local and regional government working in the fields of planning, urban design, landscape architecture, community development, culture, regeneration and economic development. In response to the urgent need to develop new approaches to spatial planning, the renewal of transport systems and climate adaptation, experts from the Denmark, France, The Netherlands and the UK focused on the strategic potential of the Landscape included transport, agriculture, the public realm and topography, to shaped the identity of cities and regions.
Speakers: Klaus Bondam: Mayor, The City of Copenhagen, Technical and Environmental Administration. Robert Camlin, Partner, Camlin Lonsdale Landscape Architects, llangadfan, Wales and Marsden West Yorkshire Maguelonne Déjeant-Pons, Head of the Cultural Heritage, Landscape and Spatial Planning Division, Council of Europe, Strasbourg. Adriaan Geuze, Founder and Principal-in-Charge, West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, Rotterdam. Kevin Logan, Associate, Maccreanor Lavington, Rotterdam and London. Frits Palmbloom, Director Palmboom & van den Bout Urban Design, Rotterdam. Oliver Schulze, Architect, Director Gehl Architects, Urban Quality Consultants, Copenhagen.
MADE and Birmingham City University urban design public lecture series : Klaus Bondam, Mayor of Copenhagen - 'Copenhagen: Eco-Metropolis'
Monday 6th April, Town Hall, Birmingham
West Midlands Built Environment & Design Fair
Thursday, 4-7pm, 25 February 2009 at Space2, Custard Factory, Central Birmingham
Designed Environment West Midlands, the partnership of organisations promoting design excellence, took part in the West Midlands Design Fair 2009. Over 30 stallholders exhibited their latest work in the region. Stallholders included architectural practices, development and engineering consultancies', local authorities and regeneration organisations showcasing design, professional bodies and institutes. There also were themed stands, such as sustainability, education, developers and housing associations and regional public sector support bodies.
Dialogues in Community Cohesion
Thursday 26th February 2009, The Studio, 7 Cannon Street, Birmingham, B2 5EP
An event for explore the dynamic relationship between design and community cohesion. This seminar shared best practice and launched the newly accredited Community Design Course aimed at local residents wishing to actively engage in housing, neighbourhood design and related careers.
MADE is 5! Celebratory event and masterclass
16.30-19.45, Tuesday 3rd March 2009 at Fazeley Street Studios, Fazeley Street, Digbeth,Birmingham
A conference of 150 of the region’s top architects, designers and planners gathered the 3rdmarch to celebrate the landmark 175th birthday of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and mark the 5th year of Midlands Architecture and the Designed Environment (MADE).
Alongside the festivities, Dhiran Vagdia, regional chair of RIBA, and Glenn Howells, chairman of MADE, leaded solemn discussions on how the industry would adapt to the current economic challenges to leave a positive architectural legacy for the region. The evening alsofeatured a master class by RIBA Royal Gold Medallist Ted Cullinan, director of the award winning London based Edward Cullinan architects.
The event took place at Fazeley Studios, Birmingham’s new £7 million home for creative and digital businesses.Acknowledging the difficulties faced by the development sector, Glenn Howells, warned against cutting costs at the expense of innovation. Glenn said: “Giving up on our aspirations for a high quality public realm because of the current climate is akin to throwing away the lifeboat because the raft has become ropey. Architects with foresight know that the best projects are not evaluated on a year-end return but on a five or ten year return. “It is not just a question of yields, but of making sure that in the future our leading talents and our children won’t want to move somewhere else. It is about ensuring that we can compete with and outshine other cities. MADE has a rigorous assessment processes but I would defy anyone who has been through that process to say that their project is not better as a result. Now more than ever we need to keep our standards high.”As the regional architecture centre for the West Midlands, the role of MADE is to deliver partnership projects with the region’s developers and encourage a strategy of innovation and public engagement throughout the planning and development process. MADE works closely with the RIBA to promote the role of architects and architecture in the region.
Rescue Geography: photograpic installation by Dan Burwood
October 2008
Organic Eastside: Creative Approaches to Regenerating Digbeth
28th October 2008 5pm-8pm
This seminar at South Birmingham College asked how do we keep the momentum for regeneration in today's market? What are the City's plans for Eastside/Digbeth? Event information here
Annual Design Review Stakeholder Event
Monday 31st March 2008
The inaugural DRWM service users event was held at Baskerville House, Centenary Square This event was to celebrate the first year of this regional Design Review service and take the opportunity for feedback from a wide variety of parties engaged within the process. read more...
Under the Influence Symposium
Wednesday 19th March 2008
MADE held a symposium entitled “Under the Influence (The power of young people to inform public space). The symposium that is part of MADE’s Creative Communities programme attracted 70 delegates from a range of professions as well as speakers from national agencies such as Bill Badham from the National Youth Agency and Joost Beunderman from DEMOS. The day also included a timely presentation from Wanda Brown from DCSF regarding the play pathfinders and international inspiration from Pihla Meskanen, director of ARKKI, school of architecture for children and youth in Helsinki, Finland.
Delegates from design, planning, Elected Members, highways, and design & historic environment champions attended from authorities across the West Midlands region at the Courtyard Theatre in Hereford. read more...
MADE* invites you to the launch of an alternative guidebook, which is being held as part of the opening night of the "Rugby Open 2007" Exhibition.
The guidebook reveals local distinctiveness as defined by locals and in this case by a local artist who decided that looking up would uncover something new about the town.
MADE* held the launch of “Dudley (A Critical Path)”, in the Banqueting Suite of the Dudley Concert Hall. This alternative guidebook, from a distinctly local viewpoint is part of the Making Sense of Places Project.
Edible Eastside
8th October 2007
Over 45 people attended a dinner to celebrate MADE's services over the last year and to thank the design review panelists for their hard work.
An empty factory building was transformed into a restaurant set against an enchanting backdrop of canalside fauna and plantlife to reflect a menu inspired by Eastside.
Advised by Pamela Smith of Botanical Connections (who also sourced the plants), Chef David Peevers developed a menu from local ingredients, including nettles, mugwort, chickweed, plantain and local duck. Dessert paid homage to Bird's custard and even the elderflower cordial was made by local school children. The guests were inspired to think about local resources and local distinctiveness in the most literal sense.
The City of the Immortals Exhibition Birmingham based Artist Michelle Lord, influenced by a short story 'the Immortal' by Jorges Luis Borges has created an exhibition of 'other-worldly' images which were displayed at MADE's Fazeley Street offices throughout architecture week.
Warwick Bar Soundwalk Artist/Architect Practice Liminal returned to birmingham to discuss their soundwalk created around the Warwick bar area, a downloadable 30 minute walk capturing peoples' views, past and present sounds in a 30 minute walk
MADE Christmas Party
Still glowing from their Scandinavian experience of huggelig* whilst on their Copenhagen Delegation, MADE invited its freinds to share some seasonal fare, mulled wine and warm company at its Fazeley Street offices.
*Huggelig is a word best translated as 'warm, fuzzy, cosy, basically a comfortable feeling of well-being' Huggelig is found in all that is Danish and related to food, the friends you keep, the furniture you dress your home with, family traditions and music.
Creative Community Roadshow - ENYAN Launch
29.11.2006
MADE took the Creative Communities Roadshow to Shrewsbury in November, presenting to an audience at the regional launch ofENYAN (English National Youth Arts Network) showing the Youth Space DVD and giving out publications. For more details about this project see the Creative Communities section of this site.
Launch of Coleshill Youth Space
18.11.2006
The Coleshill Youth Space, created as part of MADE's Youth Space Programme, was unveiled at a party in the park in November. Vanessa Brothwell, MADE Project and Partnerships Manager attended the event along with the artists, architects and young people who were involved in the design of the shelter.
Tilman Latz Presentation
16.11.2006
“In my projects I am always interested in the ‘genius of the place’ rather than in the genius of my office. Even motorways or industrial wastelands can be filled with a new spirit and can be made worth living by keeping visible the spirit of the existing site. Landscape and open space contain a wealth of information layers. These layers of information can exist physically, they can be visible or invisible…or remembrances - lying within or out of the place. The challenge is to make the right selection, to liberate our senses and to be open to new impressions." Peter Latz (www.latzundpartner.de )
As partners with Kinetic AIU on the sucessful competition entry for the Warwick Bar developement in Birmingham's Eastside Landscape Architect Timlan Latz of Latz and Partners visited Birmingham to discuss the philosophy and work of the practice at an evening event organised by MADE.
A meeting of the DEWM cross discipinary network for designed environment professionals took place in Ironbride where amongst other things Dominic Church, Senior Policy Advisor at CABE spoke about CABE's Regional Housing Audit and Julia Ellis of MADE talked about the new Regional Design Review Service
Copenhagen Delegation
October 2006
MADE took a delegation of over 30 professionals from across the built environment to Copenhagen and Malmo for its 3rd International Delegation. For a report of the visit see the Delegation Section
Liminal Soundwalk
10.09.2006
As part of Arts Fest 2006 Sound Artists Liminal created a Warwick Bar Soundwalk.
"The soundwalk developed out of our approach to our role as lead artist for the Masterplanning project for the Warwick Bar site. We were keen to ensure that initial investigations of the site incorporated a rigorous historical and social perspective as well as exploring the soundscape as it now is and amongst other techniques, the practice of soundwalking presented itself as a valuable research tool. We used soundwalking in three different ways; first as a personal investigation of the site, second as a way of introducing the architects to new ways of hearing the city and lastly as an audio survey of the site"-Liminal
On the day the public were invited to visit the MADE offices, pick up MP3 players which had the soundwalk on, then take a walk round the Warwick Bar site. For further information see the Warwick Bar section of the site where you can download the soundwalk for yourself.
Creative Communities Roadshow
Walsall Art Gallery – 25.08.2006
MADE was invited by Walsall Borough Council to disseminate the Youth Space publication and methodology and to run workshops engaging young people with Walsall’s new Borough Design Guide SPD within Walsall’s ‘Ready Steady Summer ‘ programme of young peoples’ activities. This led to a Creative Communities Roadshow on 25th August at the New Art Gallery Walsall as part of the ‘canal workshop’. Approx 150 young people participated in the roadshow which was designed to engage young people with Walsall Borough Council’s Design Guide.
Creating The Irish Quarter Exhibition at MADE
July 2006
MADE HQ was the venue for and exhibition of proposals, models and plans for Birminghams Irish Quarter.
The exhibition included more than 10 models of exciting new developments that are planned for this up and coming area of the city. The exhibition will showcased the models of future innovative and cutting edge schemes devised by top quality developers and included Glenn Howells Architects and Kinetic AIU.
“This exhibition is a clear example of the exciting vision we have for the City’s Irish Quarter, future developments include preserving some of the city's best industrial and architectural heritage and blended it with new, dynamic and unique facilities to create a modern, attractive and inviting place to live in, work and invest in.” . MADE Director Julia Ellis said, “We are delighted to be hosting this exhibition which demonstrates the value and importance of good design for building cohesive communities that are vibrant and contribute to the life of the city.”- Clive Dutton, Director of Planning and Regeneration, Birmingham City Council
MADE was proud to co-ordinate Architecture Week 2006 on behalf of the Arts Council. In addition to this we organised a number of events detailed below:
Walk of Neglected Buildings Architect and Urban Designer Joe Holyoak created a walk of neglected buildings in the Eastside Area.
"There are many interesting and attractive buildings, of many kinds, within the area. This walk chooses to focus on ones, which are neglected. Some are empty, some are occupied, but they are all deserving of better treatment than they are currently receiving. We invite you to take a stroll down the back streets of this fascinating district, and imagine what it might be like in a few years with the right kind of investment, and the right kind of regeneration plan. These tired old buildings could be rejuvenated and once again buzzing with life" - Joe Holyoak with thanks to Andy Foster
The Embassy in Brindley Place Pupils from Small Heath School, along with artist Dave Pollard created 'the embassy' a micro-structure in Brindley Place, in response to thinking about cultural idenity and the built environment.
Cinderella Cities Conference Confronted by challenges from de-industrialisation and declining population to environmental decay and global competition, European cities are reinventing themselves. A new generation of visionary public and private sector leadership are redefining the urban agenda. The ‘Cinderella Cities’ conference explored urban success stories from around the world. For more information see the ULI website.
Fort Dunlop For the national launch of Architecture Week aerial dancers Gravity and Levity performed against the elevation of Fort Dunlop. There were also speeches by Marjorie-Allthorpe-Guyton, Director of Visual Arts, Arts Council England, Charles Knevitt, Director of the RIBA trust, Julia Ellis, Director, MADE and Hazel Rounding of Shedkm, architects of Fort Dunlop.
Youth Space Publication Launch
Government Office West Midlands – 23.05.2006
MADE launched the Publication and Film detailing its Youth Space project at an event held at Government Office for the West Midlands which was attended by the artists, architects and some of the Young People involved in creating these spaces. For further information about this project see the Youth SpaceSection.
