Second City First

摘要

Whoever said the icon was dead? In the centre of Birmingham, Mecanoo's design for the ￡193m Central Library has been unveiled and it is a bold architectural statement. This glowing stack of boxes, wrapped in a filigree iron cladding, demands the attention as the latest in a line of regenerative hubs in the Midlands city. Make Architects' Cube development is in mid-construction, Foreign Office Architects' revamp of Birmingham New Street station is soon to break ground, and now the self-styled "largest lending library in Europe" is set to complete the trio of design-led buildings going forward in Birmingham. And with ￡6bn of "recession proof investment promised by the city council, could it be that while the rest of the UK's development programme slows to a halt, Birmingham is about to become the dynamic centre of the UK's building industry?