PROPOSAL BY: JASON PENHALL

FOR: BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL

PROJECT: STAGE THREE
Introduction
STAGE THREE intends to provide a starting point for a regeneration strategy
for Eastern Birmingham, based on the information below and aims to work as
a catalyst for further projects to work from.

This project aims to understand the extent and nature of the threat to the
future of cultural integration in Birmingham and aims to suggest a series of
policy deviations in order to remedy this in order to reconnect the city and
encourage the integration of different areas.

The Problem

Eastern Birmingham has a rapidly rising population, a shortage of schools and

health centers, local centers and recreational infrastructure, high levels of
disease, deprivation and unemployment with poor connections to employment
opportunities elsewhere in the city. Life expectancy is 20 years lower than
places such as Lichfield, just 30 miles away.

Using the City and Environment approach, developed in the Netherlands, as

basis for a similar solution for the issues in East Birmingham.

The aim is to produce a strategy for the next 20 years that will:

• Reduce reliance on cars

• Conserve and improve water quality
• Improve public health
• Ease demand for local produce
• Increase employment opportunities
• Improve living conditions
• Improve the environment
• Encourage people to seek local recreation
• Increase visitors and tourists

Ultimately, the aim is to create an intervention that will act as a catalyst for an
urban reconstruction strategy over the next 20 years.

Due to the shortage of recreational infrastructure in Eastern Birmingham, the

strategy item that this project will focus on is to increase visitors and tourists.
The impact of culture on the city is prominent and will be discussed
throughout this report. The intention is to create a thriving cultural industry that
will begin to advertise the city and encourage visitors and tourists to
participate. The importance of local tourism does not necessarily suggest
‘those visiting from outside Birmingham’ alone, but quite accurately includes
any person within Birmingham traveling to an area not often visited by
themselves for recreational activity. By blurring the edges of who can be
defined as a tourist, this report aims to suggest how heightened
communication between various areas of Birmingham could benefit the city
and begin to inform the other objectives for a strategy for Eastern Birmingham
over the next 20 years.

The Problem with Current Residential Developments

In the present day, residential developments act as quick fix solutions to

problems in area. The problems that these developments try to tackle is the
lack of housing stock, the real problem however is that while some of these
spontaneous communities are designed with good intentions, the result is a
‘cookie-cutter’ estate that has a complete lack of true identity and therefore is
lacking the cultural infrastructure that is of vital importance to the quality of life
of the residents that live there. Local people from outside the area or those
from other towns or cities have no interest in these communities, as there is
nothing culturally attractive. There are no sites of interest to attract any scale
of tourism, this ultimately means that the estate becomes a completely
internalized community and we begin to see thresholds develop between it
and the rest of the city.

The Importance of Music

The shift to digital media means that the important income source has shifted
from distribution of media to live performances.

“Live music is now the biggest employer in the music industry, employing
44,000 people.” - (2008) This city is built to music, Greater London Authority

Due to the shift to live music and the rapid growth of summer music festivals
in the UK, it has become easier to acquire licenses for one-off live music
events.

The impact of the music industry on tourism is an important factor;

deterioration of music venues in Birmingham not only prevents cultural
celebration but could also impact on the city financially.

“A study by Camden borough council concluded that the annual value of the
night time economy was somewhere between £70 million and £120 million,
with music venues and nightclubs accounting for at least 20 per cent of
visitors. Small to medium-sized music venues feed a network of smaller
satellite industries in the nighttime economy, from licensed minicabs to kebab
shops and all-night garages. The study recognised that markets and music
venues were an essential part of the Camden Town area – the Electric
Ballroom in particular.
Small to medium-sized music venues bring a ‘brand value’ to their local
borough and London that extends far beyond the number of people using and
visiting them.” - (2008) This city is built to music, Greater London Authority
Music venues are important recreational spaces within Birmingham, they
encourage an interaction between communities that extend beyond the venue
itself, a survey of music venues in Birmingham (Appendix I) suggest that
music venues are operating well below capacity. STAGE THREE will act as
an advertisement, not only for THE REFUGE development on Lancaster
Circus, but also for the importance of music in the city.

Deviation

It is the case that music venues, and their importance are not reflected
accurately in current planning policy. It is important that these venues are not
simply seen as clubs, or purely commercial properties, many people have a
much more personal affection with music venues of various types, and some
venues should even be considered as pieces of cultural heritage and
important history. The culture of a city such as Birmingham is one of the major
factors by which people judge a city or relate to a city, music venues should
have the same rights to heritage and protection as any other building or
space.

Government Legislation and Local Policy should effectively reflect this and
move to protect venues for the cultural and historical importance. PPS6:
Planning for Town Centers, could provide further means to promote the
importance of music in the city. The Government's key objective for town
centers is to promote their vitality and viability by:
• planning for the growth and development of existing centers; and

• promoting and enhancing existing centers, by focusing development in

such centers and
• encouraging a wide range of services in a good environment,
accessible to all.

This policy could relate back to the communities outside of Birmingham City
Centre and develop means to support facilities in the wards across Eastern
Birmingham. By planning in the development of cultural spaces, we could
encourage development of smaller satellite industries that contribute to a
more diverse and thriving community. Policy should begin to recognize live
music as a legitimate activity through PPS 6 in order to promote different but
complimentary uses depending on time of day.

It may be that we could make changes to planning law to restrict the changes
that can be made to existing venues to prevent them from disappearing, by
making it less easy to propose a change of use, this could be through the
reclassification of the Use Classes Order.

Noise will be a major issue; static venues can sound proof their buildings in
order to combat this, but most complaints received about noise are due to
people leaving the venue late at night. THE STAGE THREE will have to be
sited so as to be considerate of those not attending the venue as well as
operate during sociable hours. PPG24: Noise suggests that venues should
take remedial action to prevent issues of noise at their own expense. By
realizing the importance of live music in the city, this guidance could be
amended to suggest that support from the government would be available for
this remedial action. Many of the venues around Birmingham were there
before the residential developments that surround them, which suggests that
PPG24 could even enforce premeditated action for noise issues on the
residential developers. This makes much more sense because a music venue
owner could only really provide noise prevention measures, such as
soundproofing for his own building, which does not tackle the issue of noise
made outside the building after the event, if residential developments were to
take on the soundproofing measures the action would be much more
effective.

The initial conclusions suggest that the following steps should be

Taken:
• develop a live music strategy, which integrates relevant best practice
planning guidance
• incorporate protection of live music venues into the BIG CITY PLAN
• set up an advisory committee to inform these approaches and establish
• better lines of communication between the industry and policy makers

Strategy

STAGE THREE will begin to reconnect the city of Birmingham. The current
city structure is defined by ward boundaries. In terms of specifying locations
this is fine, however these thresholds shouldn’t be so prominent at ground
level. When travelling through Birmingham, these thresholds are very
apparent and the ease of distinction between the wards, without the use of a
map, is one of the major problems facing Eastern Birmingham, the fact that
these boundaries are so obvious suggests that the cities communities aren’t
interacting and integrating with each other.

The intention of this mobile venue is to break down the barriers between the
different areas of Birmingham by encouraging people to move around the city,
allowing communities to externalise themselves and improve communication.
By doing this we can kick-start development of the more deprived areas of
Eastern Birmingham using the Tourism & Culture market as a vehicle. Culture
for many cities is the primary source of income and music performance on
average accounts for around 20% of that income.

Areas such as Washwood Heath were areas with very clear identities in the
past, Washwood Heath for example, for the car and train industry. These
areas, due to the changing world no longer have these primary industries and
therefore also lack identity. We aren’t directly trying to create an identity for
these areas, but through the advertising of these areas, using STAGE THREE
as a promotion tool, the aim is to provide a catalyst for these areas to develop
their own new identities, but also to communicate with other areas.

The city of the ‘individual’ is particularly biased towards the urban corridors
that they are familiar with. Anything outside the paths taken to and from work
etc is dark, we don’t know it and therefore it is alienating. By encouraging
movement along the less travelled path, STAGE THREE will allow people to
understand their city better and indirectly improve it.

Method

THE STAGE THREE will act as a mobile ‘stage 3’, to THE REFUGE
development itself, based on Lancaster Circus. The aim of THE REFUGE
building itself is to enforce the notion that music and culture is as much a part
of the infrastructure of Birmingham as the physical infrastructure that attempts
to physically hold the city together. The building will act primarily as an
educational facility, which attempts to provide the city with performing
musicians to fill the many underused venues. STAGE THREE or ‘stage 3’ will
travel around the outer areas of the city, with the intention to advertise the
static component and connect the outer areas back to the centre as well as to
each other.

The success of this component will be in the semi-spontaneous erection of a

performance venue, the impact it has on the area itself, but primarily in the
remnants that it leaves behind. These remnants are the satellite industries
that will grow to support the facilities impact on an area. The restaurants or
transport hubs that will remain static in the area to support the new integrated
community that remains, after STAGE THREE has moved on.

The project will use Washwood Heath as its laboratory for experiment.
Washwood Heath is the most deprived area in Birmingham and is within the
17% most deprived areas in the country. This area over all others is where the
impact of this project will be most noticeable; giving an impression of the
success that STAGE THREE could have on others. The major fault of
Washwood Heath is its obvious internalised community. When travelling
through Birmingham, it is difficult not to notice the threshold that is crossed
when entering Washwood Heath, it is not a physical threshold but more a
general feeling the area creates. The area is predominantly of Asian
population, 64%, and this fact is reflected continuously in the shops and
restaurants available, this is natural development, but nevertheless,
discourages other groups from travelling to this area for recreational purposes
or more permanently. If the vestiges that STAGE THREE leaves in the area
include the element of diversity that is currently lacking, then the promotion of
integration will follow, and over the next 20 years we may begin to see the
changes that are necessary to positively develop these more deprived areas
of the city.

STAGE THREE will have a visual representation in the skyline, enabling

people to literally follow it around the city as well as through use of THE
REFUGE building itself and Internet notification. There will be an element of
spontaneity about it, but the dismantling, transport and re-erection of the
venue will be a celebration in itself. A more proactive and impacting version of
the Reclaim The Streets, spontaneous live venues, approach, which
informally tried to achieve similar but less defined objectives.
The celebration of the erection and dismantling of this venue is of great
importance. A major factor will be public participation, encouraging people to
take a more active role in the regeneration of their communities and their
integration to others. A precedent study for this project was the German
Market, which arrives for a few weeks per year along Birmingham New Street,
attracting people from across the West Midlands. The effect that this market
has on the local economy is positive, bringing additional business to the
shops along New Street. It could be argued that this additional business is of
minimal impact due to the popularity of Birmingham as a shopping city and
the constant ease of access to the shops all year round. Using these
principles, however, we can apply a similar strategy to less popular areas in
Eastern Birmingham to achieve exponentially better results.

STAGE THREE itself should be a transient manifestation, in terms that it

should never have a fixed location, this includes whilst being in transit to the
next event. To support this idea and to encourage a greater level of
community involvement, the proposal is for the venue to be a composition of
fragments. These fragments will be owned by different people within each
community, and will be brought to the next event and leave each event with
that community. The principle will be not dissimilar to that of a market stall.

STAGE THREE is trying to advertise each area it travel through, it will do this
by gathering a cross-section (or fragments) of each area as it passes, and
taking these fragments with it to the next event. STAGE THREE will hence
become a microcosm of the entire of Eastern Birmingham, allowing visitors to
the events realise the cultural infrastructure that holds each community
together. What is meant by a cultural cross-section is similar to that of a flea
market, normally those found in LEDC (Less Economically Developed
Countries), these flea markets are full with stalls selling locally made products,
local food, artwork or advertising for that area. STAGE THREE will take on a
similar form.

The proposal is for a set, simple, collapsible module to be produced by

Birmingham City Council. This module will act as a vessel or ‘market stall’ at
the event, rather than selling market space as in a traditional market, the
module may be purchased by shop or company owners from each area, they
will then bring their module along with their product/advertising to each
STAGE THREE event. These modules will be assembled on site to create a
low stage for local artists to perform. What will result, will be an event that
incorporates the sale of community specific products, the advertising of
community specific places of interest and the integration of multiple
communities with a backdrop of local music to provide a truly cultural event.

As STAGE THREE progresses through each event, within each ward over 9
months, spending 2 weeks at each site, people will follow for reasons of their
own (for the music or for the market, or for the event as a whole). As
fragments of STAGE THREE are removed and returned from different areas,
the advertising of the event itself will be seen and as a consequence will grow.

As STAGE THREE and the events themselves grow in size, static satellite
industries will begin to grow, through gentrification of the existing places that
are visited. This boost in local economy will encourage more business and it
is intended that each community will begin a more natural redevelopment and
begin to solve the problems that are currently inherent.

Summary

The importance of music and culture needs to be made more apparent, and
we need deviation from Government and Local Planning Policy to achieve
this. THE REFUGE and THE STAGE THREE, although an initiative of the
Birmingham City Council will attempt to illustrate the flaws in policy and make
amendments as necessary.

THE STAGE THREE will establish itself as a proactive means of expressing

the importance of music and culture in the city, by educating people of this
importance but by also acting as a catalyst for positive development in
Eastern Birmingham. Kick-starting a 20-year programme to improve those
deprived areas by encouraging integration and communication throughout the
city.
PROPOSAL BY: JASON PENHALL
FOR: BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL
PROJECT: Birmingham Expo 2013

Introduction
Birmingham Expo 2013 is an evolved version of Stage Three – it is
static.......... and popular.

Whilst Stage Three is operated as a mobile event, visiting all of Eastern

Birmingham over the course of 5 months, its size over the mobile years will
grow and it will slow down as a consequence, visiting fewer areas but catering
to a larger number of people. As the event evolves, the intention is for it to
settle – for it's popularity to draw people to it rather than the other way around.
The satellite industries that would follow in its wake would become permanent
extensions of the event, and for this to occur we need a site.

The Site

The site needed to be large enough to accommodate the evolved version of

Stage Three – Birmingham Expo 2013. The approximate size of which is
expected to be the same as the NEC – approximately 200,000 sqm. Another
important feature for the site would be that the event would need to be self-
advertising, not only for itself but also for Eastern Birmingham and the city
itself.

A common issue with music and event venues is noise and access, so the
site needed to consider possible residential areas surrounding it and allow
access, preferably by public transport.

The proposed site for Birmingham Expo 2013 is the Gravelly Hill Interchange
also known as Spaghetti Junction.

The site is one of the largest open areas near Birmingham city centre at 30
acres and occupies land that is practically unusable. The noise levels across
the site range from 70 – 90 dB, making it unfit for residential use – lending
itself to an event space that by nature is loud itself. Spaghetti Junction sits on
the confluence of multiple transport systems including roads, trains, rivers,
canals and footpaths, and works as the primary gateway into Birmingham city
– ideal for its function as an advertisement.

Programme

The event is conceived as a cultural exhibition, similar to that of Shanghai

Expo 2010 – we have Birmingham Expo 2013. 2013 is the year the first UK
city of culture will be announced and this Expo is a response to that. This
venue will become a final effort that puts Birmingham in the spotlight.
Liverpool showed the value of becoming a City of Culture in 2008. Over 15
million people visit the city’s arts venues and events now, a rise of 30% as
well as a £800 million boost in economy.

The event grows to occupy the most unusable areas within the site – under
bridges and flyovers. The open-air areas are used as a series of public
squares, viewing areas and circulation.

The built form will develop around three main stages, places around 40 - 80
metres apart to avoid interference and on two levels. The surrounding built
form will grow from it as a series of satellite industries, similar to those that
followed in the wake of Stage Three in it's mobile form. These will include
market and exhibition areas as well as more commercial, related shopping
areas and restaurants.

Phase 2 of the project will grow over time on the upper stories as possible
accommodation for multiday festivals that could occur once or twice a year, or
further stage and exhibition areas.

Service areas will run off the backs of public programme and will be accessed
by road from the lesser road links that run through Spaghetti Junction, whilst
public access will be gained from the lowest level. There is space for parking
provision as well as drop off areas for busses and small moorings for canal
boats. Additional bus links could operate at peak times between the event and
the train station at Gravelly Hill.

Conclusion

To conclude Birmingham Expo 2013 will act as, in the first instance, a
summary of key points of culture and trade from Eastern Birmingham. It will
then develop as an event over time, to advertise the city of Birmingham itself
creating a gateway to the city and a new attractor for the tourist industry, one
of the most important industries for the economy of the city.
References

Websites:

1. www.london.gov.uk
2. www.birmingham.gov.uk
3. www.birminghameconomy.org.uk
4. www.statistics.gov.uk
5. www.thelivingnewyork.com
6. www.urban75.com
7. www.wimby.nl
8. www.vrom.nl

Books:

1. Martin, E. (1994) Pamphlet Architecture 16, Architecture as a

Translation of Music, New York, Princeton Architectural Press
2. Griffiths, E. (1994) Modern Music, A Concise History, Revised Edition,
Malta, Interprint Ltd
3. Sacks, O. (2007) Musicophilia, Tales of Music and the Brain, Kent,
Picador
4. Dutlinger, A. (2000) Art, Music and Education as Strategies for
Survival, London, Herodias Inc

Publications:

1. This City Built to Music, London, London City Council

2. Liveable Cities, Netherlands, VROM