The site
Once filled with bustling streets of workshops and small manufacturers who were coined locally as the ‘little gaffers’, the site was replaced by the Central Goods Station at the height of the industrial revolution, becoming ‘the workshop of the world’.
Most recently home to the former Axis Building, the site covers an area of approximately 4.15 acres, bound by Holliday Street to the North, Suffolk Street Queensway to the east, The Mailbox shopping centre to the south and Centenary Plaza to the west. It sits vacant following the demolition of the Axis building last year.
As a gateway location close to New Street Station, this is a key opportunity site with huge potential in terms of the wider regeneration vision for Central Birmingham. The Draft Central Birmingham Framework 2040 envisages that redevelopment of the site will ‘deliver high-density residential and commercial development connected by new streets and squares and a reactivated canal frontage between Gas Street Basin and Mailbox’.
The vision
A landscape-led approach
The landscape and built form work in harmony to create an active and fluid relationship between internal and external space, providing activation and animation within the public realm, throughout the day.
The topography of the site makes it unique and special. Our proposal seeks to harness the changing topography of the site, providing a variety of spaces at different levels, with ever changing views.
LDA’s Landscape Strategy focuses on animating and opening up the site, with welcoming and unique public spaces bringing the new district to life.
Improved Movement & Connectivity
As a gateway site between two key pedestrian routes, Goods Station has a real opportunity to support connectivity and access to the city centre. We want to increase access across the site and open it up to the surrounding city, linking in to the existing routes and creating a new primary pedestrian link.
New homes, amenities and public space
The new Goods Station masterplan will deliver:
- Two landmark residential buildings which will deliver c.860 homes
- Additional mid-rise residential building which will deliver a further 122 apartments
- Innovative student accommodation providing up to 750 beds in a mix of adaptable studios and cluster apartments
- Aparthotel providing up c.300 apartments which is served by a new restaurant
- Multi-level food hall and retail amenities
- New landmark public square
- Increased biodiversity and planting
- Improved connectivity to New Street Station, City Centre and Arena Central
- Improved street scene along Holliday Street and Royal Mail Street
High quality design
Our approach to architectural design focuses on how the four buildings on the site can best respond to and enhance their surrounding context. This means responding to the surrounding city context in terms of height and materials, while giving this new landmark destination a unique and coherent character.
A green oasis
Sustainability, nature and livability are key to our vision for Goods Station.
A verdant, pioneer landscape will be created that celebrates seasonal change and natural processes. A naturalistic, ruderal planting style will reflect the aesthetic of a post industrial landscape, providing greater biodiversity and habitat area.
A new public square which will become the heart of the development.
Over an acre of publicly accessible open space will be delivered at the heart of the development and will provide new areas to sit and dwell, eat, play and be active. The square will also provide additional spaces for community events to be held within the centre of the city.
