The 2007 summer school

Learning from the heart of England

Birmingham is a city recognised internationally for successful regeneration and in 2007 it played host to the CABE urban design summer school. Appropriately for a city that has seen so much positive change in recent times, the theme of the event was transformation: the art of creating successful places.

From the multi-award winning Brindley Place development that put the city centre back on the map and re-imagined Birmingham's wealth of waterways to the on-going renewal of its old industrial sites and social housing stock, Birmingham is a flagship for design-led regeneration. The transformation of the city continues apace and, delegate benefited from visiting real sites and projects that are changing the face of the region.

Evening events included visits to Argent’s Brindley Place and Urban Splash’s Fort Dunlop. The course itself was built around “Big Design Projects”, with delegates choosing two of the following three sites.

• Edge of City Centre: the challenge was to design a mixed use development which will extend the city centre and integrate with a new linear city park. There is a significant historic building on site and difficult edges created by canals and railways.
• Social housing estate: the challenge was to plan a design intervention in a Radburn-style social housing estate bounded on two sides by busy highways. The site includes two local schools. Would it be possible to create a sustainable neighbourhood where others have failed?
• Market town: a failed 1960s shopping precinct and car parks were the third design challenge. Could you create designs and uses which would revitalise the town and balance its areas of activity? How would you integrate your proposals with the historic environment?

We would like to thank Birmingham City Council, Urban Living (the Birmingham and Sandwell housing market renewal body) and Tamworth Borough Council for helping us to identify these challenging study sites.

Photo album

To see all our photos from the summer school, view our Flickr album where you can download images for your own use. If you would like us to add photos you took at the summer school to the album, contact Royston Robinson.

Presentations from the summer school

You can also download selected presentations from the summer school for reference and, for alumni, to refresh your memory. These will be available shortly.