We have to admit that, although the Birmingham Coach Station has been open for duty for some months now, we’ve only just gotten round to writing about it, or rather been prompted to write about due to its neighbouring newer addition, ‘The Zellig’ at the Custard Factory which we’ll feature in the follow-up to this post.
Both buildings reside in Digbeth and both feature art as major aspects of the scheme to the extent that they make up large parts of the proposal or are integral parts of the building.
So begining with the earlier completed Coach Station which despite it being a £15 refurbishment project looks like the ‘New Kid On The Block’ when compared to the refurbishment project that is The Zellig. The Birmingham Coach Station as it has now been re-christened was officially reopened on 18 December 2009 by the then popular England national football manager Fabio Capello, after the old (Digbeth) coach station was closed in 2007, with a temporary site set up on Oxford St on the opposite side of the High Street, referred to as Birmingham Central Coach Station.
The original ‘Digbeth Coach Station’ was built by Midland Red in 1929 using it as a depot themselves as well as by its successor Midland Red West. The initial design which demolished the entire station was created by MAKE Architects (now synonymous with the Cube at the Mailbox), however National Express then commissioned Manchester Architects, SBS, to redesign the plans so that it now incorporates most of the existing façade which is hardly discernible behind the new copper cladding and its new aerofoil like cantilevered canopy which leads you to the full height planar glazed concourse area.
Three new artworks were developed through community consultation, recognising the importance of Digbeth as a gateway to the city whilst reflecting its rich cultural heritage and its these works which this post will focus upon.
The first element was the first real visual representation of Digbeth’s Irish Quarter created by Glasgow artist Dave Sherry artist in collaboration with architect with Glenn Howells – a 10 x 7.5m textual installation fixed to the side of the adjoining building where the architects reside.
This understated piece has received a comparatively muted response, as it really ‘only comes into its own when illuminated’ at night and has come out of discussions with representatives of the local Irish community following frustrations from the absence of any visual identify of Digbeth’s Irish Quarter. The sign’s text “A Hundred Thousand Welcomes”, is in fact a translation of a Gaelic saying, “Cead mile failte”.
The colour of the background panel, of reddish brown, is also a reference to the both the Irish rural landscape as well as the typology of brick buildings of Digbeth’s (and Birmingham’s) Industrial heritage. The handwriting appears courtesy of Digbeth resident Sister Sabina MBE, known for her outstanding charitable work with the homeless and founder of ‘Fireside’ – a charity set up for socially excluded or disadvantaged groups.
Her handwriting was picked by a creatives panel following the community event ‘Digbeth Public Art Project‘ where members of the public were asked to pen the phrase in their own hand. Thus the ‘Irish Quarter Visual Artwork’ can be seen as a truly collaborative achievement where artist and community members have indeed come together producing a landmark art piece celebrating the cultural history, the vitality and the architecture of the area.
Although, concrete, copper and steel were considered as materials for the sign, the end result involved using a fully recycled man-made material as the biggest letter is in fact two metres by two metres.
The second and most visually striking element of the arts package is appropriately named ‘Boundary’. A bright red linear array of 320 steel haunch sculptures forming the perimeter security fence to the station itself. Very different to a conventional fence, ‘Boundary’ has no horizontal elements, created from L-shaped steel panels, which rear up from just over 2m up to 6m on the Bradford Street frontage and this 181m long sculpture is in fact a collaboration between Birmingham-based Rob Colbourne and Stuart Mugridge.
Inspired by the industrial history of the surrounding area which including the iron “slitting” process of the long-vanished Lloyd’s mill and the 18th century weighbridges made by W&T Avery, they have responded with a piece that aims to play with the viewer’s perception of space and perspective. The gaps inbetween allow glimpses of the station but present the impression of a solid wall whilst walking away. The work is fact one of the largest public art commissions ever carried out in the city of Birmingham and its vibrant rich colour signals an intent on the development and regeneration of the area, which, as elsewhere in the country, has temporarily halted but we hope will continue.
The final element is a short documentary film by audio-visual artist Mat Beckett of the area forming the Birmingham archives and has become an invaluable record of the regeneration project and produced in collaboration with a group of young people from Aston as part of their Arts Award qualification.
It ‘explores the collaborative processes between private, public, community and artistic interests in developing a new coach station for Birmingham. Which incorporates public art as an integral part of the function and statement of a building that connects the local with the national and the international’.
It also provides an enjoyable insight into the other public arts projects – you can view the video itself below.
Max also produced a 6 minute film documenting an 8 month period of the new Birmingham Digbeth Coach Station being built, called ‘Timelapse’ using 2 minute interval stills which is also an interesting view on the construction of the building (see video below).
Our next post will continue to look at the other notable regeneration development that has taken place in Digbeth ‘The Zellig’ and its artwork which resides with the existing building known as Devonshire House.
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