Regeneration

Regeneration has been one of my favourite subjects since I began freelancing, and I have contributed to various property-related titles, including Estates Gazette, Building Design, and Regeneration & Renewal.

In the February 2009 edition of the Birmingham Post’s Business & Property Review, I had an exclusive interview with Urban Initiatives’ MD, Kelvin Campbell, on the Big City Plan.

Context is everything, and with 1,500 words to write, I had freedom to set the scene for Kelvin’s thoughts.

"If Sir Herbert Manzoni was the architect of the bleak concrete wasteland which formed Birmingham’s urban heart during the second half of the 20th century, then Kelvin Campbell is surely his nemesis."

"As city engineer for almost three decades, Manzoni wreaked damage to Birmingham’s architectural heritage on a scale to make the Luftwaffe’s bombs appear ineffectual."

"His modernist beliefs were symbolised by a ring-road network which stifled the city centre’s regeneration, and the monstrous concrete ziggurat of the Central Library."

"Campbell though is of a different generation, willing to acknowledge the merits of the past, and embrace the challenges and possibilities of the future."

"As managing director of Urban Initiatives, he spearheads the consortium driving forward the master-planning stage of the city council’s Big City Plan ..."

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design: yellow-design.co.uk